THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE!
by Tru Mel Meiko Mei Ling
Summary: Out of sheer boredom, Rouge comes across an ice cream parlor featuring a one of a kind milkshake for one day but its made for two people to share! SO, she cooks up a slew of challenges for the guys to grab her winner and nab her shake. Mature for humor
1. Mah Milkshake Brings

**THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE!**

Disclaimer: No I don't own these peeps. But…I may cosplay Rouge one of these days…

Strolling down the main street of Station Square, Rouge hummed a distant tune while glancing through the windows of the shops she passed. As she got near the end of the street, nothing interesting caught her eye, until an inviting scent floated past her nose. She traced the scent until she reached a shop she had never seen before. "Hmm…looks like a new ice cream parlor…" she stated, with a hand on her hip. It was already a hot summer day, so without hesitation she went in. Gazing at the menu, she saw an advertisement for the largest, coolest and delicious-looking milkshake she had ever seen. It would only be around for ONE DAY. After that, it would be taken back to the manufacturers for a revaluation. It was a great deal, but there was one catch…it was a milkshake designed ONLY for two people.

"Great…" she muttered, tapping her foot and grossing her arms "The best drink that would quench my thirst is for two people only! I'd look stupid if I ordered one for myself!" Irritated, but quick to devise a plan, Rouge placed a thoughtful finger under her chin and looked out the windows of the parlor. "Hmm…now just where would I find someone to share it with…? Not exactly a date, but to get something I need…"

At that moment, she caught Shadow walking down the street. He looked as if he were half-heartedly trying to get away from something.

"Hmm…perfect!" Rouge stated, already running out the door to claim her victim.

"Hey Shadow…" she said in an alluring tone "It's good to see you, say are you busy, today?"

With no emotion, Shadow looked behind him, then back to her. "No…Why?"

Rouge smirked and neared closer to him. "I'd…just like to borrow you for a second."

"For what?"

"You'll have to come with me to find out. …I need you, Shadow…"

"…"

She linked her arm with his and put on her best syrupy sweet smile to distract him. What she didn't realize was that her cleavage was swallowing half his elbow. "Why don't you come with me? I've got the best thing for just the two of us. It'll be slow and smooth; nice and relaxing. And there'll be lots of cream between us to enjoy…"

Shadow took his arm away and stepped back, thinking of something that rhymed with "porgy". "…What the hell are you trying to take me to!"

Realizing the double meaning of her words, Rouge rolled her eyes. "Not THAT. I would have been straightforward with you if that was the case, but I'm not that 'type' of lady."

"Hmph. Good. I didn't think so"

"But I would like you to come with me for a second...if you can. Come on!" she exclaimed, already grabbing him by the arm and pulling him towards the parlor.

Shaking his head with a playful smirk, Shadow paused her steps. "I may be wrong, but are you trying to throw me a hint?"

"With what?"

"…You keep saying the same 4 letter word…"

"Oh…that…"

"No, not 'that'."

"It's a 4 letter word."

"You know which one I mean!"

"Oh, you're beating around the bush now..."

Shadow "hmphed" as he became slightly intrigued. He knew she was teasing him. Then he smirked. Two could play at that game "I am, am I? Well, I wasn't the one overflowing about an excess of cream…"

Rouge glared at him. "Are you going to come, Shadow, or do I have to do it for you…? Either way, I'm making sure you come with me, this instant!"

Shadow felt his cheeks warm up. "Oh, you're good…"

Rouge gave him a fanged grin. "Save the compliments for later. Come on!" she called, pulling him to the doors of the parlor.

"You just won't stop will you?" he asked, referring to her deliberately dropping the word "come" in her sentences.

"Hm? I'm just oblivious to some things…" she said, quickly slapping him on the shoulder, "Like that…"

"Hmph."

Just then, Amy Rose came running upto them and grabbed Shadow from behind. "Gotcha, my darling Sonic! You always think you can get away…"

Irritated, Rouge pushed the two of them apart and stepped in front of Shadow to shield him. "Look, little girl, don't you think that if you actually cared for Sonic like you say you do, you wouldn't confuse him for Shadow all the time?"

Angry, Amy stomped her foot at Rouge. "Save it, bat woman! It's not my fault when the two of them look the same!"

Rouge blinked. "What! They look nothing like each other—" Then she thought it over. Since Amy always ran for their backsides, she didn't bother to look at their faces.

Rouge giggled, and turned to Shadow.

Raising an eyebrow, he looked to her. "What is it?"

Rouge tried to stifle her giggles. "You've got quite the interesting backside for Amy to confuse yours with Sonic's. Maybe you two are more alike than you thought…"

Shadow broke out in cold sweat and jumped away from them. "WHAT!"

Curious, Amy put a finger to her chin. "Hmm…she does have a point."

Rouge chuckled. "Heheh. I do, don't I? Oh, and look who's here…"

Just then, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails came down the street. It seemed as if though they were looking for something or someone.

Amy, instinctively ran to Sonic, and as she did, the three of them noticed Shadow and Rouge. Knuckles was the first to call out. "Hey, bat-girl, it's you!"

Rouge narrowed her eyes. "...'bat-girl'... I have a name, you half-wit echidna! Hmph." Then she thought to herself, with the rest of them there, she couldn't go in the parlor with Shadow anymore! They'd all protest and she'd feel so uncomfortable!

Then suddenly, she got a brainstorm.

"Hey, guys…and Shadow…Shadow, you can come a little closer, your 'butt-buddy' won't bite you."

Stepping next to her, Shadow scoffed and crossed his arms. He then glared at Sonic, then at Amy.

Confused, Sonic looked at Amy. "What did you do to Shadow? Did you grab him again, thinking it was me?"

Amy nodded. "I sure did! But even though he feels just like you, I'll always love your butt the best, Sonic."

Sonic nearly choked on his own words. "SAY WHAT?"

"Ahem!" Rouge called, tapping her foot, "As I was saying before. I have an idea that will involve all of you! The benefits are especially favoring. You see this ice cream parlor has a shake that was made to be the end all shakes of any flavor, but, in order to taste it, only a couple of two people may be able to share and indulge in its richness. I want to try it, but I'm not going in alone! So! With that being said, I'd like to hold a contest between all of you guys, including you too, Shadow, and the ultimate winner will be able to share the shake with me for the day! How about it?"

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles thought it over for a while, then conversed amongst themselves.

"Why does it have to be about you?" Amy exclaimed with her hands on her hips, "I should be in this challenge too!"

"Hmm...you've got a point" Rouge commented. "Whoever loses will have to go on a 5 hour date with Amy!"

Everyone was silent.

Amy was about to protest, but then a thought came to her and she accepted the role. Sonic cringed as Amy turned to him. "You better LOSE, Sonic!"

"Okay!" Rouge called "So, do we have a deal? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"

Again, the trio thought about it, then agreed.

"Sure" Sonic said with a shrug "We have nothing better to do."

"Then, it sounds like we've got ourselves a challenge!" Rouge agreed with a grin. "Ah…I can almost taste it!" she claimed to herself.

"…" Shadow heard her and silently gave her an expressionless look.

Rouge playfully gave him a push. "Not you!"

He chuckled lowly, but it sounded more like a "hmph"

"Allright then!" Sonic exclaimed "It's time to party!"

- ugh…what have I done! The brainstorming went well; the note writing went well…why is it that everytime I type up a story for real, the characters nearly take over and have the story directed their own way almost? They ALWAYS take over! Their personalities love to interact. shrug

Anyway, this fic WILL get better, and I already have some ideas for their challenges, but, if you'd like to send in some, please feel free. The story format may change to a dialogue set up to make things flow quicker and easier.

Oh, and expect a bit more adult humor. I luv the stuff. Innuendoes…an ingenious concept

So don't send me anything saying "ewww it's so nasty!" or "the humor is too adult!"

It could have been worse.

Well, anyway, see you next update…Whichever story it is.

Or you could always email me.

Peace

-Mel


	2. Sweet Talk Me

THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE ! #2

For the first stage of the challenge, Rouge decided to have them all gather in Tails' workshop. For their first contest, Rouge figured it best to be in someplace cool…because it was bound to get rather heated in there…

"Allright, boys! Get yourselves situated, because we're going to start round one! But first, let me explain the basics. All four of you will have to go through challenges testing your mental, physical, and sensual abilities." she said with a sly smirk and chuckle. "The categories you'll be facing are: Mind, Speed, Sporty, Strength…" she then lowered her voice at her next statement "…Sensuality, and last but not least, a Special which could be anything farfetched and random from this cunning mind."

The room was silent as Rouge glanced around, looking for any misunderstanding expressions.

Tails raised his hand. "Say, um, Rouge.."

"Yes, Fox-boy what is it?"

"Well, all of this sounds like a lot of fun, but…if I win, like by fluke or default, do I still have to…share a milkshake with you?" Tails asked, blushing a little and bashfully twisting his tails.

Rouge, as well as everyone else stared at him and he huddled into a corner.

With a hand on her hip, Rouge nodded. "Yes, Fox-boy, if you did by any chance win in first place at the end of every challenge, you'd get to fulfill one of your little adolescent wet dream fantasies and lose yourself in gallons of flavored cream with a beautiful woman."

Tails turned a bright red and found himself unable to move.

Knuckles coughed. "Wow, Rouge, you make it sound like something else…"

Rouge narrowed her eyes at him. "That's the point. It's what makes it so much fun…!"

"Wow!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Hell yeah to that!"

Rouge rolled her eyes and sighed. "Ahem! Could you please hold any and all unintelligent outbursts? Thank you. Okay! The first challenge starts now!"

With that, Rouge stepped to the middle of the floor and placed a mat labeled with the six categories on the floor then sat an empty glass bottle on top of it.

"Ohhh!" Amy exclaimed, from standing very close to Sonic. "It's kind of like spin the bottle!"

Rouge casually crossed her arms. "Well, it's something like that. Okay, whoever I call up to spin this bottle will start the event."

"Hey! If this is like spin the bottle, I want to participate too!"

With an irritated groan, Rouge shook her head and turned her back to Amy. "Fine. Whoever declines their privilege to start the event will have to let Amy sit on their face for a good three minutes."

"WHAT!" Sonic and Knuckles exclaimed, outraged.

"That's crazy!" Sonic shouted.

"You couldn't pay me enough to let her do something like that!" Knuckles chimed in.

Shadow simply crossed his arms and turned away from them. "Hmph. I'm quite happy with being infection-free, thank you."

Tails was the only one not to agree. Instead he looked at all of them and tilted his head to the side. "…What's so bad about it? Amy's not THAT heavy."

Silence coated the room as all the guys and Rouge stared at Tails. He cowered at their gazes. "Wh-what? What I do?"

Saving the little guy's innocence from being tainted, Sonic draped an arm around Tails' shoulder and patted him on the back. "Don't worry, buddy. Someday, when you're older, you'll understand…"

"Seriously…" Rouge muttered "I was just kidding. But, whoever doesn't accept their starting of the event that's chosen, they will have to endure a truth or dare session by Amy for five minutes. The consequences will be to enter a smooch session with her. Just to let you know in advance."

Sonic and Knuckles shrugged.

"That's not really any better, but…" Sonic trailed off.

"It's A LOT better than what is was before! AN AWFUL LOT better!" Knuckles finished for him.

Shadow scoffed.

Rouge nodded. "Okay. That's good enough. We don't have all day! Now, the first person I call to spin the bottle is…Sonic!"

"What? Sonic!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Why pick him first?"

Shadow said nothing in protest, but watched Sonic walk upto Rouge with eyes that held the same question.

Sonic shrugged, then rubbed his nose. "Don't care and it doesn't matter! Okay m'lady, are we ready?"

"Quite."

With a smirk, Sonic began to spin the bottle.

After a few seconds, it stopped at Sensuality.

Sonic winced as Rouge chuckled and snapped her fingers. "Allright, cutie. This is what you're going to have to do. I'll give you three choices to start with. You may only choose one."

Sonic blinked as Rouge held up three cards in front of his face. Not caring really which was which, the hedgehog chose the middle one.

Looking at his choice, Rouge giggled and put the remaining cards away. "Nice choice."

"What did I get?"

Rouge smirked. "You chose 'The Sweet-talk' "

"Sweet-talk! What, do I have to try to sweep you off your feet or something?"

Rouge nodded. "That is correct, but you and the rest of the boys have only 5 minutes to do so. But first, do you accept this challenge, or do you decline?"

"Um…" Sonic looked back at the rest of the participants. Shadow looked nonchalant about it, Tails appeared rather confused but ready for anything, while Knuckles was a bit redder than usual. Sonic shrugged. They seemed okay with it. Then, he looked at Amy, who was waiting intently for him to decline and blew him a kiss.

With a shudder, Sonic turned back to Rouge. "S-Sure, I accept! What have I got to lose?"

Rouge giggled. "Your pride…" Before Sonic could say anything, she called them all upto a stage-like ramp in the workshop.

The four of them had separate booths to sit in as Rouge sat off to the side, next to a marker board with a few cards in her hand. "Allright boys. For this rather fitting event, you'll have to say the right things to make me consider going out with you…for business of course. You'll be rated by the things you say. You'll each get 4 questions. If it's something vulgar or too disgusting, you get a zero. For any stupid remark…" she glanced at Knuckles "…you'll get a -1 point. Your comments will be rated on a 1 to 5 scale and will then be added for a final score. Understand? Okay Let's go!"

Rouge cleared her throat and took a look over her cards. "The first one goes to…Knuckles…Greet your date. "

Hearing his name, the echidna quickly sat straight up and cleared his throat. "Um…yeah, sweetcheeks?" He tried to sound as manly as he could, but his nervousness still was quite obvious.

Rouge raised an eyebrow, but continued on. "…Sonic?"

With a smirk, Sonic rubbed his nose and leaned against a wall. "Holla at me, babe."

Rouge chuckled in amusement and jotted down a number. "Okay, Shadow?"

"…"

"Um…Shadow?"

"…I'minlovewithyou." Shadow said lowly, stringing his words together.

Rouge twitched an ear and leaned forward. "Wh-what?"

"I mean uh…ahem" A light brush of crimson rose to Shadow's cheeks as he constantly cleared his throat as he spoke. "...I…I think you're a very beautiful…woman, Rouge. Maybe…we can go out…ahem…later."

"Awwww!" Everyone except for Knuckles teased.

Still blushing, Shadow turned away from them and crossed his arms. "Don't start that with me…!"

Rouge, who was unable to say a word for a good 3 seconds, cleared her throat and quickly jotted down a number for Shadow. "Um, that was very …sweet of you Shadow. Um…Tails?"

The young fox sat up cheerfully. "Hi! I like you and think you're cool. Wanna come play with me sometime?"

Silence.

Rouge sighed and wrote down a number for Tails. "Maybe when he's older, he'll understand what he's actually saying…" she muttered under her breath. "Okay! Here are the starting numbers." she said, writing the guys' names and the number she wrote down for all of them.

Knuckles got a 2, Sonic got a 3, Shadow got a 4, and Tails got a 2. He had a one before, but Rouge concluded that what he said could still be rather alluring as it was amusing.

"A 2!" Knuckles shouted.

"Hm...so? No one got the highest score" Sonic added, then looked to Shadow. "But someone sure got close!"

Shadow, his arms still crossed, closed his eyes to block out their teasing and somehow prevent his rapid blushing. It wasn't helping.

"Allright." Rouge said "Now, I'm going to ask four questions, and each of you, starting with Sonic, has to give me a comment. If you decline…" She pointed to Amy, who had one of Tails' pillows and was practicing kissing on it with a bright red shade of lipstick on her lips.

Tails groaned. "Amy…!"

"What? Don't worry, Tails, this stuff won't rub off and it leaves my lips shiny and smooth!"

Knuckles nodded, impressed. "Wow. Maybe she's born with it."

"Or maybe it's Maybeline…" Sonic said with a shrug.

"Hmph." Shadow remarked.

Rouge scoffed. "Okay! First question. Say the two of us are going to a bar at a club, and one of us gets drunk. Sonic, what would you do?"

Sonic winced. "What? What kind of question…?"

"Ahem..." she pointed to Amy.

Sonic quickly recomposed himself. "Well, if that were the case, I'd…get us out of there in a Sonic-second. No girl of mine would get drunk with me knowing about it, and I wouldn't either. I wouldn't want anyone dear to me having their lives in danger because of me and something I did."

"Wow Sonic." Tails stated.

"Yeah, that's deep." Knuckles agreed.

"Well..." Rouge said, wincing a bit. "That is pretty caring of you, Sonic. Knuckles? What would you do?"

Knuckles pointed to his nose. " Me? Well… I do like a good party, and…a drink here and there never hurts. But, if it were me that got drunk…I can't say what would happen. It wouldn't matter if you were my girl, a guy, or a support beam. I'd be so gone, I wouldn't know, nor care for the difference. But, if it were you as my date that got drunk, I'd hold you close and take you out for some fresh air and never leave your side. Even when the after-effects hit you hard."

Silence.

Rouge twitched her tail as well as her ears in thought then wrote down a number for Knuckles. "Thanks for being so honest…Um...Shadow…you're next." Lightly biting her lip, Rouge curled her finger around a stray lock of hair. "What would you do in that situation?"

"Well…" Shadow started, slowly opening his eyes to look at her. "If I were in that position, I wouldn't let it happen. There would be no drinks, and no bar for that matter. You deserve--Any lady of mine would deserve to goto a better place to dine and be entertained. There is no price on quality for me and the one I choose to…probably spend my life with."

Silence.

"Awww Shadow!" Amy exclaimed from near the ramp. "You're such a darling!"

"Yeah, man" Sonic chimed in "You're hittin' pretty high with this. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you've been planning for this for quite sometime!"

Shadow thought about Sonic's words for a moment, then looked elsewhere. "Maybe…" he muttered.

"Well now, Shadow…" Rouge said, trying to keep her voice steady. "That was pretty amazing. You really know how to treat a lady."

Shadow smirked. "Hm. Thanks. But it all comes down to the actual things, so nothing is ever set in stone, not matter how believable it sounds."

Rouge bit her lip. "You're right…" She then cleared her throat and looked to Tails. "Well, Tails….you're a little young for this question, but, rules are rules. What would you do if either of us ever got drunk?"

Tails looked confused for a moment, then spoke up. "Well, like Sonic, I'd try not to let it happen. And like Shadow, I'd prevent it happening from all costs!" He pauses as he thinks about what Knuckles said. "And…like Knuckles, I'd let you throw up on me if you had to!"

Sonic laughed as Knuckles growled and crossed his arms.

Rouge smiled. "Thanks Fox-boy. You're not half bad."

"Thanks!" Tails beamed.

After writing down his number in her notes, she posted the same results as before on the marker-board: Sonic had a 3, Knuckles had a 2, Shadow had a 4 and Tails had another 2.

"Sheesh" Sonic commented "Talk about the same old…"

"When's the challenge?" Knuckles complained.

"Calm down over there! You'll get what's coming to you!" Rouge retorted, then glanced at her watch. "Okay, we're going to have to cut this event short because the 5 minutes are almost up. So, here's the final question, and the one with the most points will choose the next event…and maybe get a little…treat from me. So, here we go! It's our second date and we've grown quite fond of each other already. In five letters or less, tell me the number one thought on your mind when the date is over. Sonic?"

"Five letters! What?"

"No stalling!" Rouge reminded " And 'what' doesn't count! Five letters or less, the clock is ticking!"

"Allright um...'Again'!"

"Allright. Knuckles?"

The echidna winced. "Um, not sex!"

Rouge stared placidly at him. "I said five or less, pay attention!"

"I know that! Can't you take a joke bat-girl! I'll say 'Slow' !"

"You can say that again…" Rouge mumbled under her breath. "Okay, Shadow?"

" 'Aibou' " Shadow stated promptly.

"Hm…'partner' " Rouge commented, writing down his number.

Shadow nodded. "Yeah, but I was actually going for more of an…Ally…"

Rouge nearly dropped her pen and looked at him. He had always called her an ally, so why didn't he come right out and say it first? It was less than five words. She blushed a bit. He was mysterious, but a real gentleman…That's probably why his fur looked like a tuxedo almost…

"O-Okay…moving on, Tails?"

" 'Come'!"

Rouge had to catch herself from nearly falling out her chair. "What! "

"Come…" Tails, repeated "As in ' Please come again' um…my sweet?"

Rouge hesitated for a bit and tried to get her fingers to write, but couldn't. She knew he meant to please come on a date again with him, but the way he said it… Rouge began to wonder if that fox was as innocent as he let on.

"Um….let's just go with 'Sweet', for now. Allright! We just made it in time. I'll post the results and add them up…" With that, she got out of her chair and posted the new scores. Sonic had a 2, Knuckles had a 1, Shadow had a 4 and Tails had a 3.

"What! A 1!" Knuckles protested.

"Hm? Oh, yes, that was a mistake, let me change that. " Rouge said flatly as she erased the one to make it seem like she was giving him a better number, but wrote a -1 instead. "Therrre we go, that's better." She smirked while dusting off her hands. "And now for the final score…"

Sonic had an 8, Knuckles had a 3, Shadow had a 12 and Tails had a 7.

"Wow" Tails exclaimed. "Lucky 7! I'm close to you, Sonic!"

Sonic half smiled. "When aren't you…"

"A 3?" Knuckles vociferated. "What, I'm not romantic enough for you!"

Rouge placed a hand on her hip and looked away from him. " Is it just me, or is there a hot-headed sore loser in here…? Hm…I think I may be hearing things…With these large ears of mine and all…"

"Grrr" Knuckles growled, and quickly got up from his seat. "This isn't over yet!" He stormed off the stage. Wordless, Rouge watched him go. She felt a little sorry for him, but not much. He really was a hot-headed sore loser. "Hmph.."

Turning back around, she saw Shadow stepping out of his booth and starting to leave the stage. Without knowing, Rouge walked quickly over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, Shadow, don't forget about the rules. You were the winner of this one, so, you'll have to choose from the remaining 2 cards in this category."

Shadow said nothing but looked at her.

She hesitated. "Wh-what is it? Do you want to pick, or not? You know what'll happen if you go against it."

He continued to watch her before finally speaking. "Hmph. I thought you had a 'treat' for the winner of this game."

Rouge blushed and turned away for a moment, then looked him straight in the eyes with mock anger to hide her flustering emotion. "Maybe. I said maybe, Shadow. But…if you really wanted something from me…" she lead on, tossing her hair back.

"Hmph" He knew she was beating around the bush, and Rouge, knowing that he knew, sighed, then smiled at him. "Good game, Shadow. " she said, patting him on the shoulder and turning on her heels to leave. She could feel his eyes burning through her as she left. "He's always watching me…!" she uttered under her breath. Stepping off the ramp, she joined the others in the room and called to Shadow, who was still standing in the same spot. "Come on down here! The next event is about to start!"

In a flash, Shadow was right in front of Rouge and gave her a small smirk. "I'm ready…"

With a nervous nod, Rouge quickly covered it up, and took out the remaining two cards.

"Choose your event well…"

-

The idea actually started WITH a milkshake…a strawberry one at that. From Mc Donalds.

But, while writing, the song did pop up occasionally in my head. I even had Rouge humming it in the first chapter, although that was a personal insert joke because of what the story was about. I was going to have her singing it while walking down the street in the first chapter, but…I didn't know all the words…and then I heard what the uncut version actually sounded like from a few people…but I really don't know for sure, but after hearing what they said, I don't think she's actually talking about a milkshake of a dance, or whatever…

So now you know, Rouge was humming Milkshake in the first chap. But…this is actually turning out to be quite funny…and kinda romantic sigh. I just can't get away from the romance. But, I'm glad its going along so nicely.

And Rouge isn't a fast girl. She's flirty, but, she does have morals.

But anyway, I'll greet you all later. And contest ideas are still open!

And yes, the loser will still go on a date with Amy…but only the ultimate loser will, so Knuckles is safe for now, until the final challenge is met.

See ya

You know…I just thought of something…no one is really out of character and this is an attempt at a comedy. That's hard to do, and it's still funny! That ain't bad…

-Mel


	3. Dressing In Drag

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters!

THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE! 3

Ready for his turn, Shadow looked at the two cards in front of him and randomly selected the one on the far left. Taking the card he chose, Rouge looked at it and put the other away. Intrigued, she raised an eyebrow, then looked to Shadow.

Shadow returned her stare with an emotionless expression. "What is it?"

Rouge smirked and turned to face the rest of the group. "Everyone, you should pay close attention to Shadow on this. If he agrees to this challenge, you all are going to weep for your dignity!"

"What?" Sonic exclaimed.

"Hmph!" Knuckles scoffed and tightened his fists. "It doesn't matter what the challenge is!" he growled, narrowing his eyes at Shadow. "I'll take anything's that's thrown at me and knock over anything or anyone blocking my way! "

Catching Knuckles' threat, Shadow simply half smiled at him and crossed his arms. He didn't care if Knuckles had a grudge against him because he so far had the highest score, or if because Shadow was getting a bit too close to Knuckles' ideal lady. With a scoff, he turned his body away from Knuckles, but gave him a sideways glare. "Then, may the best man win."

Hearing his words, Rouge swayed her tail a bit and chuckled. "It's funny you should say that, Shadow, because for this event, you and the rest of the boys will have to strip down and dress up…like a lady."

"WHAT?" Knuckles yelled.

"What!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Strip?" Tails questioned innocently, scratching his head. "What's TO strip? We wear nothing but socks, shoes and gloves."

"Hey, Tails, that's our secret! " Sonic whispered to him. "No one has to realize we're naked, except us. It's a guy thing!"

Tails gave Sonic a bewildered look, but nodded. "If you say so Sonic!"

Knuckles, who was both angry and confused, ignored Sonic and Tails' words and pointed at the dark hedgehog. "Well, what will you do, now? Sonic, Tails and me are completely against what you've chosen!"

"Well…." Sonic trailed off.

With a start, Knuckles whirled around to face him with a shocked look on his face.

"Sonic--!"

Sonic rubbed his nose, then shrugged. "Ah, it's no big deal. Dressing like a girl isn't a problem. Actually, I've always wanted to try it…as long as it was for fun only. Besides, it's kinda like the same curiosity you have when you get Kleenex instead of Cottonelle. You'll always wonder…what if…"

With an enraged expression, Knuckles growled and shook a fist at Sonic. "THIS…ISN'T…THE SAME! THERE'S NO COMPARRISON!"

"Oh Sonic!" Amy cried, running to him and throwing her arms around him. "I don't care if you have strange cross-dressing fetishes! I still want you to be my husba…er life partner!"

Sonic cringed and tried to gently pry her away from him. "Calm down Amy. It's not like that…!"

"Really?" Amy asked almost innocently, then she narrowed her eyes. "You've dressed as a woman before haven't you…?"

"Er…well it's been an interest on my agenda to try sometime before I get old…"

Amy neared closer to him, her expression growing tense by the second. "Sonic…."

"Amy…would I ever lie to you…?"

Confused and a bit enraged, Knuckles shook his head and turned to Tails.

Looking at him, Tails shrugged. "What? I don't have a problem with it either. It does sound like fun, and besides, I look like a girl anyway. Sonic's told me so."

"Shhh!" Sonic shushed, while trying to get Amy off of him.

Looking at the commotion that had been caused by Shadow's choice in the next event, Rouge frowned. "Hey! I didn't say this was a 'coming out the closet' event…!"

Shadow scoffed. "I'm almost not surprised…"

Rouge half-smiled. "Hm. I guess heroes aren't as squeaky clean as they let on, after all. It's rather amusing."

"Hmph" Shadow replied.

"That's it, Sonic! I know you're hiding something, now just spit it out!" Amy pressed, shaking a finger at him.

"But!" Sonic retaliated, but it had no effect on Amy. Then he gave in. "Okay okay fine! I got locked in your bathroom one time when you had gotten out of the shower and left your clothes in there!"

Rouge and Amy gasped as Shadow and the rest of them stared at Sonic.

"I knew I shouldn't have, but, I always wondered how that rubber dress of yours felt so I…."

"You put it on!" Amy exclaimed, becoming both intrigued and excited and touched the hem of her dress.

"Well…" Sonic began, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "That was after I sniffed it…"

Amy gasped. "You SNIFFED it!"

"…And…rubbed it…"

"You RUBBED it!"

"And then I…tried to slip into it but…"

"But what?" Amy questioned, extremely interested.

Sonic blushed, and turned his back to all of them. "The inside was really tight and the more I tried to inch in, the harder it got me-"

"SHUT UP, SONIC!" Knuckles yelled, kicking him.

Sonic barely dodged it. "What! I was going to say 'to struggle' before you cut me off, Knuckle-brain!"

Rouge raised an eyebrow. As much as she was interested in where Sonic's story was going, Rouge had to admit she was also glad that Knuckles cut him off. "Allright! We have an event to start! I'll go pick the outfits for all of you and you each have to strut your stuff down a runway and look convincing for your part. You each will wear three different outfits: Street, Evening, and Hoochie."

Shadow raised an eyebrow at her. "…'hoochie'…?" he spoke flatly.

Rouge tried to cover up her anticipation for the next event with a mischievous smile and winked at Shadow. "That one is just for fun!" She turned to the rest of the group and saw Knuckles' hand up. "And no, none of these outfits are mine, so you can forget about me dressing like that. This is drag material only."

Knuckles quickly put his hand down. "I don't like it, but I can't back down from a challenge when something worth my while is on the line." He glared at Shadow, then glanced at Rouge. With a frown, he risked a look at Sonic. With a mildly bashful expression, Sonic nodded. Tails, who was a bit distant from them stepped up and agreed, giving Sonic a placid look.

Sonic shrugged, trying to soften their intense gazes, but it wasn't working. "Fine, let's get this party stared!"

"Oh Sonic…" Amy lightly called. Before stepping upto the ramp-like stage, he looked back at her. "Y-yeah Amy?"

With an alluring stare, she sauntered upto him and pointed to his chest. "I'm not mad with you trying on my dress without my knowing, but…I need to know…Just…how did you get locked in my bathroom…? Did you do that on purpose?"

The room grew silent as everyone's eyes were on Sonic. He cringed and rubbed his head. "A…actually, Amy…"

"Yes?"

"I was um…messing around with Chaos Control and somehow ended up in your bathroom with the door locked."

"Yeah…?"

"The shower had just been used. You weren't in there though…"

"What!" Amy shouted, taking his statement the wrong way and hitting him. "Oh so you were looking for me naked, is that it?"

"No! That's not it!"

She hit him again. "Oh! So I'm not attractive enough for you to want to see me in my _purest_ form!"

"No! I mean…Yes! …Wait a minute…did I say that right?"

Angry, Amy clenched her fist and began to reach for her hammer. "SOOONIIIC….!"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Rouge yelled, stepping between them and pushing them apart. "That's enough! I don't have much tolerance for this anymore! Sonic, go, get ready. Amy you…"

"What?"

"You…go put make-up on the guys, I don't care. Just get out of here and leave the contestants' odd fetishes alone!"

A little glad she had something FUN to do this time, rather than wait for a loser, Amy agreed and ran off to grab her make-up.

Watching her run off, Rouge sighed, and began to walk upto the stage to join the rest of them.

About fifteen minutes after the guys got their first outfit ready in a backroom.

"Okay" Rouge said, taking a seat. "The first outfit should be Street-wear. Sonic! You're first!"

The second he heard his name, Sonic rushed out from the backroom and slammed the door behind him. Panting, he rubbed his forehead, then tried to walk over to Rouge. "H-Here I am!" He breathed. "I…had to get Amy off me. That girl is even crazier when she's got a grudge. I'm definitely going to feel bad for her man!"

Rouge chuckled, and looked up from her notepad. Then she gasped. Sonic had on a pair of blue Parasucos, brown suede boots, a black and silver outlined corset with a long-sleeved suede brown mid cut jacket with tassels leading from the shoulders to the wrists. On his head, he wore a dark brown crimp-styled wig and had red lipstick with a touch of blush, mascara and rosy eye-shadow.

"Wow…" Rouge muttered, looking Sonic up and down. "You look fresh!"

"Er…Thank you!" Sonic replied, heightening his voice.

"You don't have to do that…"

Sonic sighed. "Whew. Good! So, do I look hot, or do I look hot?" he mused, striking a pose.

"Hmph!" Rouge smirked, then quickly jotted down a number for Sonic. "I wouldn't get so proud so soon." Glancing up at him, she noticed that the apple and orange he had wedged in the bust of the corset were pretty visible. "And by the way, your fruits are showing."

Sonic raised an eyebrow at her. "What? My 'fruits'? My legs aren't wide open, no one can see…" Then he looked down. "Oh! These 'fruits'!"

"What did you think I was talking--"

"…." Sonic said nothing and blushed.

Rouge shook her head. "Nevermind. Allright, step over to the side. Knuckles! You're next!"

Silence.

Looking around, Rouge cleared her throat. "Ahem! You listless echidna! Come out here, it's your--"

"I'm right here!" Knuckles called, bursting out the door.

Looking to him, both Sonic and Rouge gasped.

Slowly, stepping out on one foot at a time, Knuckles graced the stage in a manner neither Rouge or Sonic had seen before.

"Well now…I've never seen him so…focused before..." Rouge commented.

Sonic shrugged. "Nah, he's only _trying_ to focus, but he'll mess up sometime. He's pretty annoyed."

"…Is he?" Rouge watched as Knuckles tried to put one foot in front of the other and then nearly trip over them twice. She then narrowed her eyes. "…He is…"

"Dammit, I need to get this right!" Knuckles growled under his breath. With a focused frown on his ebony laced lips, he tried to walk without wobbling in platinum colored 3-inch pumps with criss-crossed ties that laced up his legs. He wore silky gold capris with a diamond-studded black belt that encircled diagonally around his waist and thigh. He wore a sparkling platinum triangle halter around his chest. On his head was a long jet-black wig with pink and blonde streaks in the bangs, and a sideways platinum cap. The outfit was complete with thick gold bracelets on each arm and two gold and platinum diamond studded rings on both hands. Standing close to Sonic, Knuckles glanced at him, then Rouge and tried to smile.

"Wow Knuckles. Your outfit is very impressive! I barely recognized you, Gold Diggah! So, tell me, how do you feel?" Knuckles frowned, which made him look very much like a cute girl. "Dammit, I hate these heels! But I'm going to win this event no matter what the cost!"

Rouge chuckled. "That's nice to hear. I like a man who knows what he wants."

Knuckles winced. "Even…even when I look like this…?"

With a sigh, Rouge nodded. "Yes…even a man dressed like a woman can entice a girl's imagination…"

"Wh-what!" Knuckles exclaimed, blushing a bit.

Warily, Sonic looked to him. "Don't get so excited. What she's really saying is that she'd use you for weird experiments while you're still 'prime' "

"Wha..?"

"Think about it..." Sonic whispered "Just why do you think Amy is so bent on claiming me…!"

Ignoring them, Rouge continued on. " Next up is Tails!"

There was a soft bump against the door, before it finally creaked open and Tails' curiously stuck his head out. "Um…Allright, I'm ready!" With that, the little fox stepped out onto the ramp wearing a short blonde wig and a netted black shirt with a red tube-top halter underneath. On his legs, he had black and red rose embodied capris, followed by red and black loafers. He also wore a thin red bracelet on one arm. With a meek smile, he waved to all of them on stage as he walked by and stood next to Knuckles. "So…how am I, this time?"

Rouge raised an eyebrow at his words having double meaning, then returned the act with a playful smile. "Mmmm, you're the best, Fox-Boy. I never would have known that so much potential and creativity was being held inside that delicious little body of yours."

Quickly, Sonic and Knuckles caught on.

"Hey…Hey!" Knuckles called. "I didn't walk all the way out here in heels to hear you say that to an under-aged minor!"

Rouge scoffed. "Oh, and I suppose you'd rather me say it to you?"

Knuckles blushed and stumbled on his words. "W-well…I…"

"That's what I thought. Anyway, Fox-boy here knows I'm just toying with him, don't you?"

Tails nodded. "I sure do!"

Rouge chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Keep that up, and you'll be a fine young beefcake, indeed. Allright! Shadow! You're up! …Shadow?"

After three seconds of silence, the backstage door was slightly ajar. There was a grumble before it opened completely, and Shadow reluctantly stepped out. On his head was a lush and sleek black wig that reached his waist. He wore a black and red studded belt around his neck along with a white halter-top with silver lining. On his waist, he had a black belt with silver studs, a short blue-jean skirt and his normal black and white air-shoes. For accessories, he had dangling diamond earrings and had black and red bracelets covering most of both his arms.

Stepping over to the rest of them with crossed arms, Shadow ignored the stares from the guys and put his attention on Rouge. "…Hmph." Was all he could say.

With a giggle, Rouge nodded to him. "Not bad." She then jotted down a number. "I'd lose the shoes, tho, but…what's done is done! Allright, I've evaluated all of you for this round. Sonic has a 4, Knuckles has a 4, Tails has a 4 and Shadow… has a 4!"

Before any of them could protest, she continued on. "Now, you'll change into Evening-wear. So hurry back to your stations, boys. You'll be rated on poise. And you've got to be silent!" she said, glancing between Sonic and Knuckles, then she smiled. "Allright, the next set will begin in 30 minutes!"

30 minutes later…

One by one, the guys came out and showed Rouge how well they could walk in a dress. They all kept the same wigs on.

Sonic was the first. Clad in a purple bell dress, he tried to keep his balance while walking down the runway, then ditched the idea and tried to speed things up. He aimlessly spin-dashed off the stage.

On Knuckles' turn, he showed up in an orange and black prom dress and made himself try to strut down the runway in 5-inch heels. Needless, to say, he fell off the stage after taking two steps.

When Tails' turn came around, he happily did the runway in a dual layered blue and white bell dress without falling over even once, and struck a cute pose at the end.

For Shadow, in his black spaghetti-strap dress, he nonchalantly sauntered down the runway and crossed his arms at the end.

Quickly jotting everything in her notes, Rouge looked up at all of them. "Well, this was embarrassing. Anyway, hopefully things will straighten out in the last round." With a chuckle, she clapped her hands. "Allright, here's the last one. I want you boys to go back there and come out dressed like places where the sun doesn't shine! Come back out in 15 minutes!"

Once the guys left, Rouge evaluated her scores.

Sonic had a 1, Knuckles had a -2, Tails had a 5, and Shadow had a 4.

15 minutes later…

All four contestants came out of the backroom at the same time and stepped onto the stage.

Watching them walk out in nothing but their wigs and heels, except for Shadow who still wore his air shoes, Rouge winced at them, then angrily placed her hand on her hip. "What are you all doing! You're not wearing anything!"

With a nod, Sonic spoke up. "Yeah, but we still kept the look with the wigs…"

"And the damn heels…" Knuckles added with a growl.

"And the make-up too." Tails chimed in.

"But, why!" Rouge demanded.

"Well…" Tails began "We talked it over, and decided that we didn't want to offend anyone, so we came out naked!"

Shocked, Rouge stared at them, then she burst out laughing. "I swear, Fox-boy, you really have a way with words."

Tails blushed. "I-I do?"

"Mmmhmm" Rouge mused with a wink.

"Ahem!" Knuckles cleared his throat. "coughcoughminorcoughcough! coughcoughunderagecoughcough!"

Annoyed with his blatant hinting, Rouge glared at Knuckles. "Do you need a lozenger for that oh so OBVIOUS cough of yours?" she asked sarcastically.

Knuckles returned her glare. "Oh no, I'm fine. coughcoughjailbaitcoughcough!"

With an icy stare, Rouge twitched her wings, then turned away from him. "Allright…Moving…on!" With that said, she posted the final scores of this event are on the marker-board again, and this time, she added nicknames based on their opening outfits.

Sonic (The Philly) had a 5.

Knuckles (Gold Diggah) had a 2.

Tails (Lil Clubbah) had a 9.

Shadow (Gothic Chick Next Door) had an 8.

"What! Knuckles roared. "A 2 again! This thing must be rigged!"

"No Knuckles, I'm afraid you just happen to fall short of an average score."

Shadow scoffed.

Looking at him, Knuckles snorted. "And you…you didn't win this round either, so we're even."

Without a word, Shadow turned and walked off the stage.

Rouge watched him go, then walked over to Tails. "Well done, Fox-Boy! I knew you had it in you!"

Tails grinned. "Well, like you said, Miss Rouge, I'm just full of surprises!"

Caught by his way with words again, Rouge tried to give him a straight smile. "Ah…Ahem! And since you won this event, you get to choose the last one in the category. There's only one care left, so, here you go." She stated, handing him the remaining card.

"Just you wait…" Knuckles murmured, eyeing Shadow "This is far from being over! Next time, when it's on my turf, you'll be sorry…!"

"Give it a rest, Knucklehead!" Sonic said, passing by Knuckles and slapping him on the back, causing Knuckles to lose his balance in the heels and fall off the stage.

"DAMN HEELS!" he roared.

--

Sigh Poor Knuckles. I like the guy, really, I do. But he's always in the way of odd comical relief. Oh well…He'll get his better luck…next time! And is it me, or does this sound kind of like a "Touge"? I'm surprised myself. Who knew the little Fox-boy would be so innocently alluring…Anyway, I'm a little unsatisfied with the way this came out. Too many ideas came together clashing into one mass. The request was fine. But the collaboration of it, on my part, is what I'm not too thrilled about. Still it was funny, but…a bit too detailed, maybe. Oh well. The next one may be better.

Thanx for tuning in.

-Mel


	4. Food Fetish

**A/N: EXTREME SEXUAL REFFERENCES **(I'm putting this here just to be safe. They may seem extreme to some, but maybe not most. If it's offending, don't yell at me, because I don't mean any harm. You can find more obscene stuff in the recent TV shows, especially the comedies, these days. This is purely for entertainment. …I also started writing this at 2 am and didn't stop until I fell asleep while typing 3 ½ hours later… But it's finished now, as you can see.)

**A/N:** I, in no way, shape or form own these characters! All of Sonic and Sonic related characters are property of Sega. Yeah, yeah, we know. We should give a Sega rep a hug when we see one! "Thank you so much for creating and publishing Sonic all over the world!" Yes…that would make someone's day.

**THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE! 4: Food Fetish**

"Allright, Fox-boy…" Rouge said in her alluring voice and stepped closer to Tails. "What did you get?"

Blushing lightly, Tails glanced at the card, then handed it to her.

Looking it over, Rouge read it out-loud. "Hmmm the Food Fetish, eh?" She looked to Tails and grinned. "Interesting choice, Fox-boy. Are you ready for this one?"

With a small smile, Tails nodded. "I guess I'd better be…You always come up with the most creative ideas…"

Rouge giggled and narrowed her eyes slyly at Tails and inched closer to him. "Mmm, Fox-boy, I like the way you think. You have no idea how creative I am… I may show you someday."

"Really?" Tails' eyes innocently widened with wonder.

"Mhmmmm…"

"Yeah, I'm really creative too, and I'm good with my hands! Maybe one day you can see my work in action and witness my ultimate performance!" Tails stated proudly, mainly referring to his talent for building machinery.

Rouge's ears perked up at his innocent words and grinned darkly. "Oooh… You've got a lot of naughtiness in you…but I like it…" she said, seductively curling a finger into the 3 stray locks of hair on his head. "I envy the girl who captures your innocent little heart…"

Tails blushed, but looked upto Rouge with a confused expression. "Um…well…I…Thanks, Miss Rouge…"

"Hey, what are you two doing?" Sonic called from the other side of the room.

"What's taking so long?" Knuckles said, clenching a fist.

Shadow said nothing, but simply crossed his arms and looked at Rouge.

Turning around, Rouge faced them all with a smug smile. "Fox-boy and I were simply going over our list of things we plan to do over the weekend." She then held up Tails' card. "For this next event I hope you boys have your tongues and gag reflexes ready, because this one will be rather hard to swallow."

"What?" Sonic exclaimed.

"Let me see that!" Knuckles growled, and stepped upto Rouge. Wordlessly, he read over the card and felt a blush creep across his face. He then glanced to Rouge. "You can't be serious…"

Rouge smirked and winked at him. "Oh, but I can be…especially when it pertains to you men making absolute fools of yourselves!"

"Fools! Hey, we could always get out of here and leave you to have your precious milkshake by yourself!" Knuckles retaliated.

Rouge frowned. "Is that a threat? Because if it is, I could have you beaten and chained up exclusively myself, then grab your Master Emerald and run off with it! And there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it, but whine to your mommy about how you would never see or hold your beloved jewel ever again!"

Silence coated the room as everyone stared at her as if she had just grown 2 heads. Shadow was the first to break the silence with a low chuckle.

Puzzled, Rouge looked around. "What's so funny?"

"Well…" Sonic trailed off.

"You're nasty…" Amy said, standing rather close to Sonic. "Ha. You always did have a dirty mind!"

"What'd you say!" Rouge shot back.

"Um, Miss Rouge…" Tails began, tapping her on the arm.

"Yeah, what is it?" she asked, leaning down.

With an innocent look, Tails motioned for her to come closer, then whispered in her ear. "I think your words sounded like something else…"

"Wha--?" she exclaimed, looking at Tails. How could he of all people pick up on that? She narrowed her eyes. "I need to keep my eyes on you. You're a tricky one."

Tails scratched his head. "Huh? Why?"

"Nevermind." Rouge said, then turned her attention to Knuckles, who had a bright red blush across his face. "What's the matter with you?"

Knuckles said nothing, but slightly crossed his legs.

Rouge laughed. "Oh, I get it." She then inched up to Knuckles. "Don't get your knickers in a twist. I have my limits, and your 'jewels' are on the top of the 'I Don't Think So' list."

Before Knuckles could comment, Rouge ran up to the stage and clapped her hands. "Allright boys. This next event is called the Food Fetish! You each will be presented with a rather suggestive-looking piece of food. You will have 30 seconds to devour it whole. And if you can't deep-throat it, try your best to eat most of it in one bite!"

"What!" Sonic exclaimed. "You expect us to do that! Man, these events just keep getting weirder and weirder."

"It's crazy if you ask me." Knuckles added. "But it doesn't matter. I have something to prove." He said, glaring over at Shadow.

"Hmph" Shadow simply replied, then walked up to the stage.

"Hold on boys, there's more." Rouge continued, waving a finger. "Three of you will have one type, while the other will have another type."

Knuckles shrugged. "What's the difference?"

Rouge smiled. "You'll see…! So, do you boys accept?"

Sonic shrugged and rubbed his nose. "Doesn't seem to matter much if we do or if we don't. I'm for it."

Tails nodded. "Me too. I am a little hungry, anyway."

Amy scoffed and placed her hands on her hips. "I don't even know why I bother to stay here. None of this deals with me!"

"Hey…" Tails spoke up. "Aren't you waiting to go on a date with Sonic?"

"Tails, don't remind her!" Sonic said lowly.

Amy blinked. "Hey, you're right! Oh, Sonic-sweetie! Hurry up and lose this thing so you'll have to go out with me! And you can't say no, either! You'd have to go out with me fair and square!"

Sonic sighed, and slightly shook his head. "What have I gotten myself into…?"

Amy giggled. "I can't wait to go on our Honeymoooon!"

Knuckles laughed, but Sonic shrugged it off. "You all ready?"

Knuckles nodded. "Yep. As ready as I'll ever be." He looked to Shadow. "What about you, show-off? Are you ready for this?"

Acting as if he didn't hear Knuckles' words, Shadow brushed his quills back, then looked to Rouge. "What are the consequences…?"

"Huh?" Rouge asked "Oh yeah. We do need some, don't we? Well, since you boys seem ready, only if you go against the selected type of food you have to shove down your throat, then you'll have to eat an even dangerous one."

"And if we decline…?" Sonic asked, almost expecting Amy to be thrown in as a consequence, and glanced at her nervously. Rouge saw who he was looking at and chuckled smugly. "If you decline both foods, or just give up, then I'll have to show you how it's done…. Each time I take your turn, you lose 2 points."

Amy crossed her arms. "What about me? Why can't I show them how to swallow something whole?"

Rouge eyed the girl suspiciously. "…You young ones are something else…" she muttered, then spoke so Amy could hear her "Why? Because you're underage."

Amy scoffed. "What! What's that got to do with it!"

"Underage? Look who's talking." Knuckles mumbled, walking up to the stage.

Rouge glared at him. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

Knuckles smirked, then shook his head. "Oh no. You must be hearing things…coughcoughTailscoughcoughisunderagecoughcough!"

Rouge narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah well, even so, someone has to be a real man around here."

Shadow scoffed.

Rouge sighed. "That includes you too, Shadow."

Shadow half-smiled.

"Okay! No more wasting time! Let's get this show on the road!"

5 minutes later…

Rouge sat in a chair with her legs crossed and jotted down the contestants' names in her notebook. "Ready for round 1?" she questioned, glancing over to the reluctantly waiting participants.

Sonic shrugged and leaned against the wall of his booth, while Knuckles looked around at whom he was sitting between. Tails, looked rather enthusiastic, but rubbed his stomach when it growled. Shadow simply looked at Rouge, waiting for the event to start so he could be done with it.

With a wary expression, Rouge watched them, then shook her head. "Allright, let's go! Amy! Time to bring out the goods!"

At that moment, Amy emerged from a back room with a cart topped with metal-covered plates on it. As she stepped out, she added a little spice to her walk. "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. And their life is bettah than yours…" Amy sang, then pushed the cart away and started busting a move down the runway. "I could teach you, but I'd have to charge…!"

"Man…is she doing the Harlem Shake!" Knuckles wondered, eyeing Amy. "She's really got some swing in those hips…I never would have known."

Sonic cringed. "I'm gonna have nightmares…"

"AHEM!" Rouge called to Amy. "What are you doing!"

Amy glared at Rouge. "I just felt like dancing. Besides, you told me to bring out the goods!" Amy winked at Rouge in a way that irked her nerves.

"Why you…"

"Don't worry Amy!" Tails said, holding the food cart. "I have your goodies right here!"

"Ah!" Amy exclaimed, rushing over to him and taking the cart. "Thanks Tails. But I wanted to give Sonic the goods first."

"But you pushed them to me…" Tails meekly spoke.

"Well, I was dancing too hard to notice!"

Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

'Grind-ing!' Rouge thought with a smirk.

Shadow, who couldn't help but hear them chuckled and shook his head. "Can we please get this over with? I'm starting to think these children's' words could almost be an omen."

Rouge sighed. "Yeah, let's get this over with. Now boys, when Amy places the plates in front of you, you'll have to keep your eyes closed when you put the food in your mouths."

"Say what?" Sonic exclaimed, glancing at Amy. "You mean we can't even look at what we're eating?"

Rouge shook her head. "Nope."

"Hey, you know she's up to something Sonic!" Knuckles said. "She may even plan to poison us…"

Sonic shrugged. "Nah, I doubt it. If anything, she'll just plan to make fools out of us so there can be something to laugh about."

Knuckles lowered his eyes. "And you'd like that?"

"No. I just don't care."

"Hmm…so she actually can be trusted then."

Sonic nodded. "If the shoe fits…"

"Okay, cut the chatter! It's chow time! And keep your eyes closed!" Rouge announced. After getting the cart back, Amy placed one plate in front of each participant.

Rouge made sure their eyes were closed, then watched as Amy lifted the covers off the plates and revealed the delicacies they would be consuming.

For Sonic, there was a bun-less hot dog. For Knuckles, there was a sliced peach with a grape in the middle. Tails had a strawberry-flavored popsicle in front of him and Shadow had a chocolate covered banana on a stick.

Knuckles sniffed. "I smell fruit…."

Rouge grinned. "Keep your eyes closed! Sonic, you start."

"Allrighty." Sonic said, and aimlessly reached for the hot dog. Holding it close to his nose, he sniffed it. "Hey…this smells just like---"

"Just put it in your mouth already." Rouge urged.

Sonic shrugged, then did what he was told. Rouge and Amy both watched him intently as he tasted the tip of the hot dog with his tongue before sliding it to the back of his throat.

Seconds later, he licked his lips after swallowing it whole. "Well that was easy!" he said with a burp.

Amy gasped. "Wow Sonic…"

Rouge raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you're actually pretty good."

Sonic smiled, his eyes still closed. "Anytime and anywhere."

Rouge scoffed and jotted down a number for Sonic. "You can open your eyes now. But don't tell any of the others what they have, got it?"

Sonic nodded and leaned back in his booth. "No prob."

"Good." Rouge said, looking up from her notebook. Knuckles was next in line, but because of the item he had, she decided to wait and save the best for last. "Tails, you're next."

"Okay!" the little fox exclaimed happily, as he reached onto his plate and fumbled around for the popsicle. Once his hands found it, he curled his fingers around the stick part and touched the ice to his nose. "Whoo! It's cold!" he shuddered, then lightly touched his tongue to it. "It's cold…but it tastes good!" Happily, Tails continued to test the item with his tongue and gave it nice long licks from its base to its tip. Rouge, who was quite amused, watched him enjoy the treat. "If only you could see yourself…" she murmured under her breath. "Allright Fox-boy. You've got to eat it in one bite."

Tails' ears twitched. "I do? Oh yeah that's right!" With a laugh, Tails then opened his mouth wide and tried to stick the popsicle in, but it was too cold and he immediately took it out. "I can't do it! It's freezing!"

Rouge sighed. "I knew that was going to happen. …How ironic…" With a smirk, she got up and took the popsicle from him. "Here, open your eyes, Fox-boy. I'll show you how it's done…but you're score will decrease by 2 points, you know."

Tails looked up at her, then bashfully averted his gaze. "I'm sorry…"

"Hey, don't be so gloomy. You're still in this overall challenge. You haven't lost yet!" She said with a wink, trying to encourage him.

Tails' eyes instantly lit up and he nodded. "You're right!"

Rouge nodded as well. "Okay. Here I go… Sonic, you should watch too…"

"Huh? Okay…"

With a wink, Rouge opened her mouth and laced her tongue around the popsicle, quickly taking rapid slurps and bites as she inched it closer to her throat.

Overhearing her rather loud slurping, Knuckles raised an eyebrow, but kept his eyes closed. "…What is she doing…!"

With a gulp, Rouge finished off the popsicle, then licked the remaining flavored ice off the stick. With a smile, she nodded to Tails, then licked her lips. "There see?" She winked at him. "I'm glad you were watching me so closely, Fox-boy."

"Hey, I was watching you too, Rouge..." Sonic admitted, but Rouge raised a playful eyebrow. "So?" she chirped.

"Hey, when's it gonna be my turn! I wanna see whatever it is you were doing too!" Knuckles complained.

"Keep your mitts on! You'll get your turn soon enough. …Right after Shadow takes his. Go for it, Shadow."

Finally hearing his name, Shadow nonchalantly fished around on the plate in front of him until his fingers found the banana and he gingerly picked it up. Just as he was about to place it near his lips, his nose picked up its scent, and he wrinkled it in disgust. "It's something chocolate…"

"Yes…so…?"

Shadow opened one eye at Rouge, ignoring what was in his hand. "I don't eat chocolate."

Rouge raised an eyebrow, and walked over to him. "What's wrong? Are you allergic to it?"

Shadow opened his other eye and shook his head. "No, I just…don't like it." He said, handing the banana to her. "Bad experiences…"

"What? You can't be serious…"

"I am…"

Rouge sighed. "Okay okay…Sorry if I hit a sensitive spot. But, you will lose 2 po—"

"I know. But it's not that important now." Shadow interrupted. Speechless for a moment, Rouge gave him a puzzled look, then followed his eyes over to Knuckles, who sat with a mad-crazy grin on his face.

Rouge lowered her eyelids. "Ah…I get it. Oh well. You know the deal. Here I go…" she stated, as she lifted the banana's tip to her lips. Licking at part of the chocolate, she tried to figure out how she was going to do this one. The chocolate could coat her throat and make her gag if she did it wrong. Carefully, she parted her lips and eased the banana in. She tried to lock her tongue around it to keep it in place as she nipped off a few bites, but seemed to have a little trouble.

Sonic and Shadow said nothing as they watched her attempts at biting and swallowing the banana inch by inch, as if it resembled something else, and raised a few eyebrows.

Curious, Tails tilted his head to the side as he watched her. "What's slowing Miss Rouge down? She can swallow much faster than that…"

Knuckles, his eyes still closed, gave a puzzled expression at Tails' comment. "What the…I want to see it!"

Sonic looked to Tails and smiled nervously. "Um…I'm not sure why she's slowing down, but um…"

"He's really enjoying the show." Shadow plainly spoke for Sonic. Sonic motioned for him to cut it out, and Shadow smirked, but turned away from him.

Amy, who had been on the sidelines folded her arms across her chest and scoffed. "I'm sure she knows exactly what she's doing! Hm…so that why she wouldn't let me do it!" she then looked away "I couldn't anyway…it's way too embarrassing with all these people here…"

A minute later, Rouge had swallowed the banana and licked the remnants of chocolate off her mouth. "Whew…that was close…It was actually a lot harder than I expected…"

"You mean SOFTER not harder!" Amy bluntly retaliated.

Glancing to her, Rouge gave her a grave look, then wiped her mouth. With a hand on her hip, she gestured to Knuckles. "Allright, Knuckles…it's your turn now."

"Finally!" Knuckles cheered, as he scooped the peach into his hands and began to lead it to his mouth when Rouge stopped him.

"Hold on…you can open your eyes."

"Wha?" Knuckles questioned, but did so. His attention immediately went to Rouge, who was panting lightly and still had a few spots of chocolate near her lips. "Man, what happened to you? And if I can open my eyes now, why couldn't I do it before to watch what you were doing!"

"Because…" Rouge began, flipping her hair back and licking her lips. "Your challenge is much more delicious to observe."

Knuckles blushed lightly at the tone in her voice, but matched it with an alluring one of his own. "Oh really…"

Rouge nodded and crossed her arms. "Yes, really. Now, since your type of food is different, you have something different to do. You see the grape in the middle of the peach? You've got to get that out, but by only using your tongue. But in order to do it without the grape falling to the floor, you'll have to devour most, if not all, of the peach's juice to successfully get the grape."

Sonic's mouth hung open in a gape once he realized what this event was about. "Now I know why she saved Knuckles for last! No wonder…" he mumbled to himself.

Shadow, who was also amazed, glanced at Knuckles, then looked at Rouge with a question in his eyes.

Understanding him, Rouge simply shrugged and smiled. "I had to slip this one in somewhere. I didn't know that he'd get the peach! Ready, echidna?"

Knuckles gave her an odd expression, then nodded. "Yeah…"

"Allright then, go for it!"

By her call, Knuckles drove his tongue into the peach's succulent crevices and tried as best he could to get the grape out.

Everyone in the room watched with awe and amazement as Knuckles eagerly continued his onslaught of thrashing licks.

'I almost got it!' he thought.

Eyeing him closely, Amy nervously grabbed the hem of her dress and gulped. "Wow…he's…a really good licker…"

'Hmm, not bad!' Rouge thought to herself. 'He definitely surprised me. He's really talented…'

Tense minutes later, Knuckles lashed out his tongue for a final time to acquire the grape and he savored its tangy-sweet taste before shoving the peach in his mouth and nearly swallowing it whole. "Whew…" he sighed, wiping the invisible sweat from his brow. "That was intense…"

"Yes it waaaas…." Rouge murmured, with a certain type of fire gleaming in her eyes. She almost seemed hypnotized.

Amy, who had finally snapped out of her daze, shook her head. Running close to the stage, she pointed a finger a Sonic. "You see that Sonic! You need to let yourself loose like that!"

Sonic jumped in his seat. "What?"

"You'd better straighten up Sonic, because as of now, you're not sexy enough for me! I'm gonna want Knuckles!"

"What!" Sonic cried, his voice getting shrill.

"Well it looks like someone has some competition." Rouge said smugly to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog flinched as if he got hit in the gut. "…I think…I'm going to call it quits on this event… I suddenly don't feel very well…"

"Well, don't worry. This one's over, anyway." Rouge informed, stepping up to the marker-board and posting up the current scores. Because Tails and Shadow had given up, they both had –2 for their score. Sonic received a 5, as well as Knuckles.

Knuckles could barely believe his eyes when he saw his score. "What? I finally got a decent score! Hey, Sonic! It looks like you did too!"

Sonic, who hid his face in his hands, just shook his head. "…I'm so ecstatic…" he grumbled sarcastically.

Knuckles looked at him with a bewildered expression. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah…yeah…I just…have this uneasy feeling…" He slightly shook his head. 'How can anyone be sexier than me!' he cried in his mind '…And why KNUCKLES of all people!'

"Uneasy feeling? About what?" Knuckles spoke up.

Sonic didn't reply right away, but lifted his head, then walked out of the booth. "It's nothing. Hey, you get to choose the next event."

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "What? I thought you were getting tired of this?"

"Nah…just need some fresh air! It's getting too cramped in here. I need to get out and stretch my legs!"

Knuckles nodded and stepped out of his booth. "Yeah, I agree!"

"Then what are you waiting for? Go pick the next set of events, and make it a good one! I'm tired of staying indoors." Sonic noted, stretching.

"Got it." With that, Knuckles went over to Rouge, who stood in the middle of the stage. "Hey, Rouge!"

She instantly looked up at him from her notes. "It's about time, you started giving this famous treasure hunter some respect!"

"Um…right…"

"So what do you want?"

He grinned. "I'm ready to spin the bottle for the next event."

"My, don't you seem happy. Think you're hot stuff just because your score?"

Knuckles frowned slightly. "That's not it. I'm just ready to get out of here. So, where do I go?"

Rouge pointed to the floor off-stage where Amy stood. "There." Then she smirked. "Since you seem so eager, hurry up and get down, and I'll go down with you."

Knuckles winced as a blush crept across his face. Saying nothing, he only nodded and prepared to run off the stage when Shadow's form met his eyes.

Staring at him, Knuckles gave him a smug grin, then turned on his heels and ran off the stage.

Okay. That's that. I also handled Knux a lot better. Whew. Also, this would have been a bit more explicit, but, hey, it's PG-13! And most of the sensual stuff is over with….or IS it? Most likely not. I'll come up with something.

And for the requests, of the very few that were mentioned, I'll still add them in somewhere.

And um…sorry about the 20-some pages, but once I start writing, it's hard to stop and count pages, you know? Oh well. That's me and my style for now.

…I just may add some "deleted scenes" later. I've always wanted to do that…

Oh, and givin' a shoutie to Crazy and Kazooie!

Oh yeah. And what Knuckles said to Rouge earlier, when he was fake coughing was: "Tails is underage." Just thought I'd clear that up.

Allright! That's it!

Peace.

-Mel


	5. Soakin' Wet

**A/N- **This is the longest Milkshake chapter ever…It should carry you right along though…

**A/N**- Verrrry blunt and unrestrained jokes and outbursts by Tails.. …Hey, we knew it was coming sooner or later, right?

**THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE! 5! SOAKIN' WET!**

"Allright, Rouge." Knuckles called to the bat-woman. "I'm ready for my turn!"

Rouge half-smiled, then jumped off the stage and stood next to him. "Okay, hun. All you've got to do is spin this bottle…" she indicated, pointing down "…and watch what it lands on."

Knuckles nodded and pounded a fist in his hand. "I know what to do!"

She eyed him suspiciously. "You sure you're up for this.?"

"Wha?" He gave her a puzzled look. "Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Hmm just asking. Oh yeah…" Rouge started, leaning slightly close to him, "Nice performance back there."

"Heh. That was nothing! Having strong oral techniques and a strong body is what my generation and race is known for!"

Rouge's ears perked up. "Oh really…?" She then lowered her voice. "You're trying to hit on me, aren't you…?"

"What? No, why?"

With a groan, Rouge shook her head and stepped away from him with crossed arms. "Some romantic you are… Take your turn already."

"Fine, you don't have to rush me, bat-girl!"

" 'Bat girl'? Someone needs to teach you how to treat a lady…"

Knuckles frowned. "I can treat a lady just fine! But it's you that doesn't deserve it, you thief!"

"Thief!" Rouge vociferated and pointed a finger to his chest. "Listen up, echidna! You can talk that boorish trash all you want, but calling me a thief is crossing the line! So if you'd like to continue your day in one piece, I suggest you rearrange your way of thinking and cooperate, if you know what's best for you!"

"Wow…" Amy uttered, watching the two argue from across the room.

Sonic whistled. "…Rouge is really giving it to him rough…."

"She is?" Tails uttered, then thought for a moment and looked up at Sonic. "Shouldn't that be the other way around?"

"Huh!" Sonic cried. "What are you talking about, Tails! Oh…You mean Knuckles shouldn't take her yelling like a sissy, right?"

Tails said nothing for a moment, then returned his attention back to Knuckles and Rouge. "Well, not exactly…"

Sonic said nothing and stared at Tails, while Amy stomped her foot and pointed at him. "See that, Sonic! Your little buddy is turning out to be less innocent than you thought! And YOU'RE THE one to blame!"

Sonic cringed. "Wh-what? Why me?"

"Because YOU'RE the older influence on him and he picks up whatever you say or do!"

Sonic shrugged. "Ah… let him learn. There's nothing I can really do about that!"

Amy scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'd like to keep hearing you say that after I go after Knuckles and leave you in the dust!"

"Aw, come on don't do that, Amy." Sonic said, then muttered under his breath "Even Knuckles doesn't deserve to have that kind of torture."

"What was that!"

"Uh nuthin. Hey, I think I hear Shadow callin' me, see you Amy!" Sonic said, then quickly sped off to where Shadow was.

"Well, I never!" Amy huffed, putting her hands on her hips.

Confused, Tails looked upto her. "I thought you were crazy for Sonic? Using reverse psychology on him won't persuade him to go out with you, you know…"

Amy gave Tails an odd look. "You definitely know more than what you let on…."

Replying with only bashful smile, Tails turned his focus back to Rouge and Knuckles and proceeded to walk over to them.

"Oh yeah?" Knuckles retaliated "You think you know what's best for me!"

"Obviously you can't seem to figure it out for yourself!" Rouge replied hotly.

"…Don't start with me!" Knuckles growled, getting into a battle stance.

"Allright, you guys, break it up!" Sonic stated, rushing in-between the two and pushing Knuckles back as Shadow lightly did the same with Rouge. "We can't risk you breaking into a fight here. There are children present." Shadow stated.

Watching the four of them carry on their own conversation, Tails meekly walked upto Rouge and Shadow and timidly spoke his words. "You guys, please don't tear it up in my workshop…"

Silence coated the room.

"Uh… let's just take this outside." Sonic said.

"But I haven't chosen an event yet…" Knuckles complained.

"So, what's stopping you?" Rouge argued.

Growling, Knuckles was about to retaliate when Amy walked up beside him with her hands firmly on her hips.

"Yeah, I agree! The faster we get this thing over with, the quicker Sonic will lose and have to go out on a date with me!"

Sonic cringed as Knuckles gave her a poor attempt at a seductive smile. "…And here I thought you got over Sonic and wanted to go on a date with me…"

Both Amy and Rouge laughed.

Knuckles frowned as he glared at them both. "What's so funny…" he growled through gritted teeth.

"A date with you?" Amy mused, trying to hold back a giggle. "That was motivation for Sonic to lose! Ha! Wait. You never actually thought—"

"Quiet Amy!" Sonic exclaimed, abruptly covering her mouth and pulling to her side. "Just take your turn, already, Knuckles!"

Being so close to her idol and hero, Amy squealed with contentment and threw her arms around Sonic tightly and snuggled into his chest. "Oh Sonic! You really do care about me!"

With a shudder, Sonic glanced at Amy, then looked to Knuckles with a pleading expression. "…For the sake of my sanity, Knuckles, please just spin the bottle, now!"

Wordless with a scowl on his face, Knuckles threw both Amy and Sonic an unreadable glare before reaching down to spin the bottle.

The group watched with anticipation, except for Shadow who didn't care, as the bottle spun around three times before stopping on Strength.

"Allright!" Knuckles cheered with a clenched fist. "Finally, time for some REAL action!"

Rouge snorted at his comment, then stepped upto him with 3 cards. "Pick one…"

Knuckles stared at her for a moment, then at the cards, then back at her. "Where did you pull those from?"

"PICK ONE!"

"FINE! You don't have to YELL!"

Annoyed, Rouge rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Just pick a card, and save the ignoramus act for the Floating Island."

"Yeah…" Tails meekly spoke up, standing between Sonic and Amy. "Let's all make love and not war! Isn't that right, Miss Rouge?"

Rouge flinched and nearly dropped her cards at Tails' sudden comment and quickly darted her attention to him.

Fearing he did something wrong again, Tails bit his lip and hid slightly behind Sonic.

'I wonder if he actually may have a clue as to what he's saying…' she thought. Before Rouge could comment, a chuckle from Knuckles cut her off.

"Heh. I think Tails is trying to tell you something, Rouge!" Knuckles jeered with a dark smile.

"I am…?" Tails wondered quietly.

"Boy, you're a kinky little fox!" Amy groused , crossing her arms.

"I don't get it.." Tails stated lowly.

With a sigh, Sonic patted Tails on the shoulder. "We understand what you mean, but just so you'll remember, it's 'make peace, not war'. Okay?"

Tails blinked and innocently looked up at Sonic. "I don't get it. What's wrong with making a little love?" he asked, scratching his head.

Sonic jumped. "WHAT! …W-well…" Sonic stammered, and tried to come up with a way to say it, when Rouge spoke for him.

"Er…That's okay, Fox-Boy. Some people just don't get it…" she said placidly, looking at Knuckles with a mock smile. "and they probably, **never** will…not in this life. So, anyway! It's getting a bit stuffy in here, so let's move it outside."

With groans and grumbles, everyone did what they were told, except for Tails.

"I'll be out in a jiffy, Miss Rouge, but I gotta make sure the workshop is fixed up and tidy before I leave it."

Rouge shrugged. "Sure. Whatever floats your boat, Fox-boy. Just don't stay in here too long…I'll start to miss you."

Turning red, Tails scratched the back of his head. "I know…" he mumbled, then ran off before Rouge could comment.

Shadow, who was the last to leave, stepped upto Rouge and muttered: "I think someone is trying his best to win your affections rather than win this contest."

With a smirk Rouge glanced over to where Tails was, then looked at Shadow. "Who him? Yeah, there's never a dull moment… He's pretty slick…for a fox…"

"…Heh. Good one."

With a smirk, Rouge slapped hands with him. "I only give the best."

With a "Hmph", Shadow continued to leave Tails' workshop, nonchalantly brushing past Knuckles, who stood near the doorway, in the process.

"Oh…I didn't see you so obviously standing there…" Shadow mused casually.

Knuckles growled. "How could you NOT see me, I'm bright RED, idiot."

With a scoff, Shadow turned away from him and stepped out into the Mystic Ruins with the rest of the group.

"That guy…he knows just what buttons to push to get on my nerves…!" Knuckles growled, clenching a fist.

At that moment, Rouge stepped out and almost walked past him. "…What's wrong now…"

"Hmph. Why should you care? It's nothing that would interest you." Knuckles retorted.

"…Thanks for saving me the trouble." With a mock smile, she brushed past him and made her way over to the rest of the group. "Are you coming or what!"

With a growl, Knuckles shook a fist at her, then began to charge over to them when Tails suddenly dashed out from his lab and ran in front of him.

Coming to a stop in front of Rouge, Tails tried to catch his breath.

Sonic was the first to speak up. "What's wrong, Tails?"

Tails shook his head, then stepped closer to Rouge.

Rouge could have sworn she saw a faint smirk on his face, but pushed the thought aside when he began to talk.

"Sorry I took so long, Miss Rouge. I couldn't wait anymore, and I didn't want to keep you waiting, so I pushed myself to go as fast as I could so I could hurry up and come with you." He paused and looked around, noticing that the event hadn't started yet. "Or…do you think I came too soon? I could always come again…and pace myself, this time… Should I, or do you have something else in mind?"

Rouge stopped breathing for a few seconds, almost not believing what she just heard. In a flash, she ran over to Tails and took him by the hands.

"… ONCE isn't enough for you! Please tell me that you're not underage, and just have a really tiny body…PLEASE!"

"Well…" Tails began, with a smile "Big things come in really small packages! Sonic's told me so!"

Rouge flinched. "WHAT!" she shrieked, throwing a deadly look at Sonic. "I think someone's been holding out on me!"

Feeling like he got punched in the stomach, Sonic recoiled and tried to step out of Rouge's intense glare. "H-Hey! Don't bring ME into this!"

"Sonic!" Amy called, suddenly clinging to him. "How dare you do such things with Tails that I don't know about! You should only have eyes for me! Me!"

"WHAT! What are you talking about, Amy!" Sonic cried, breaking out in cold sweat.

"But that's not fair Amy…" Tails spoke up, walking over to her. "If it's not okay for Sonic to be interested in anyone else, then it shouldn't be okay for you to take interest in someone else. Like Knuckles!"

Surprised, Amy raised an eyebrow at him, then laughed. "Knuckles! Yeah right. He only wishes that a lady as beautiful as me would come his way for a date. But if he does like me, then, to say the least he has some good taste. But you, on the other hand, are playing the rest of us for saps! And I know that you and Sonic have been friends and known each other longer than I have, but that doesn't change the fact that Sonic is still mine!"

"Um, come on Amy. Knock it off!" Sonic called, but she ignored him and stepped upto Tails, pointing a finger at him. "Just who do you think you are, huh!" She barked, reaching up to tug on the three stray locks of hair on his head. "And what's this supposed to be anyway? Is this your personal style? It screams 'bed-head' to me."

Not liking to be teased, Tails tried to move her hands away from his hair. "Cut it out Amy! And anyway, you have hair in your face too!"

"Yeah, but mine's cuter!" she retaliated.

"Allright, that's enough you two!" Sonic said, standing between them, and the instant he touched Amy, she eagerly grabbed onto his arm. As Sonic began to pull her away she stuck out her tongue at Tails then blew at his bangs.

Tails, however, had a fit. "Ahhh! Quit blowing me Amy! I hate that!" He then clenched his fists, and tried to hold back a few tears. "…Girls always used to blow me when I was younger… And it was always just to tease me! Guys never did that to me! Why can't girls be more like them!"

Rouge, who felt disturbed as well as intrigued by Tails' outburst, shook her head, and

walked over to him, kneeling to meet his height. "Hey…calm down, Fox-boy… Amy's just being the obnoxious brat that she is and…"

"Miss Rouge!" Tails cried, throwing his arms around her as best as he could and sobbing into her chest. Alarmed, but sure he didn't mean anything by it, Rouge grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slightly pulled him off, but he only clung to her more.

"Miss Rouge…you're different from those girls….right? I know…I know that you'd never blow me, right? You're too sophisticated to…to blow me…"

Rouge shuddered. "Please stop saying that…"

"Well…" Knuckles commented, brushing past Rouge. "Sounds like bad news for you, Rouge…"

It took nearly all her strength to hold herself back from kicking that echidna into the next country, but before she could say or do anything, Shadow walked upto her and grabbed Tails by the scruff of his neck and pried him off her.

With surprised eyes, she looked up at him. "Shadow what are you…"

"…There are too many distractions. You've got an event to start." He commented, smirking faintly.

She sighed. "…How could I ever forget…"

-7 minutes later-

"Okay, you all better be ready, because I'm only going to say this once. This next event will be called Soakin' Wet. One person, selected at random, will be placed above an 8-foot deep tank of water. There will be a large target above your head. The object of this event will be to hit a bulls eye and knock that selected person into the tank…"

Knuckles raised his hand.

Rouge sighed. "Yes…?"

"Well…if one person is to be selected at random, does that count for the whole event, or can others be selected?"

"…Good question. I must say I'm amused. And yes, there will be more than one selection. That way all of you boys will get a taste of how it feels to be wet." She said with a light smile.

"You hear that?" Knuckles asked, nudging Sonic in the arm. "That means we get drop you in the water too, you hammer!"

Sonic half-smiled. "Ha! We'll see…!" He then raised his hand.

Rouge, noticing his hand up, smiled darkly, already knowing his question. " No, you can't forfeit this event, Sonic. If you leave…then the remaining three of you would leave, one by one."

"So what if we'd leave?" Knuckles shrugged. "At least you'll have a winner for your contest… He'd be a leftover, but I'm sure you wouldn't complain about it, much…" he sneered, glancing at Shadow.

"Hmph." Shadow retaliated, glancing over at Knuckles, then looking to Rouge with a smirk. "…There must be too many gnats flying around out here. I could have sworn I heard something irritating buzzing about in my ear…"

Knuckles growled and shook a fist at him. "Why you!"

"Allright that's enough!" Amy exclaimed, holding up her hands. "Both of you, no all of you, just pipe down and let Rouge finish! Not that I care for her, but I want to get this over with so Sonic and I can go out. Is that clear!"

All the guys nodded, except for Sonic, who gulped.

"Allright Rouge, you may begin."

Rouge raised an eyebrow, then motioned for them all to follow her to a clearing with a large 8 ft open water tank.

"Okay, this is where we'll start. You'll each use softballs as your projectiles. Now, boys, stand in a circle around Amy."

Puzzled, Amy looked to Rouge as the guys surrounded her. "…I knew I was attractive, but why send them all after me, Rouge? Just what are you upto…?"

Rouge frowned. "This doesn't require talking. I want you to close you eyes and spin around in place 3 times, then…reach for someone and give them a kiss."

"WHAT!" Sonic jumped. "From Amy? No way!"

"A kiss? You've got to be joking!" Knuckles retaliated.

Shadow simply shook his head, while Tails took a step back. "After what she did to my manhood, no way!" he mumbled, tugging on his bangs.

Knuckles coughed to old back a laugh, while Sonic nervously rubbed the back of his head. "That's manlyhood, Tails. Sheesh…who was the guy who taught you all this stuff? He didn't do a very good job…"

Tails blinked. "Oh… That was—"

"YOU, Sonic." Amy cut in, glaring at Sonic.

"Aheh…I guess you're right…."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "We don't have all day! There're only 12 more hours until the ice-cream parlor closes, and I want to get there on time! Amy, close your eyes and pucker up!"

With a haughty gesture, Amy turned her nose up at Rouge, then closed her eyes and spun around three times.

All the guys watched, and silently whimpered, in the anticipation of who would be Amy's first victim.

Coming to a wobbly stop, Amy tried to retain her balance and took a few steps towards Sonic.

The hedgehog could barely breathe, his heart was pounding in his ears. 'Please don't let her kiss me. Please!' he begged in his mind. And like an answer to his prayers, Amy lost her balance and ended up colliding into Knuckles, and kissing him square on the chest.

"Ack..." Amy coughed. "Who is this?" she pondered, roaming her hands about Knuckles body, then stopped when she felt his dreadlocks and screamed.

"Ahhh! I feel contaminated with something!"

"OH SHUT UP, ALREADY!" Knuckles bellowed, and stormed past her and Rouge and stood next to the water tank. "Tell me when…" he growled.

Rouge smirked. "Go for it. The rest of you, take turns knocking him down. You all have one try. Oh yes! I almost forgot. If you do by chance get knocked in the water, you will have 30 seconds to reach the surface and climb out. The longer you stay in past 30 seconds will be multiplied by 10, and…." She trailed off, aimlessly looking around and smirked when her eyes fell on Amy. "…transferred into minutes, and Amy will have to give CPR to the person for that length of time. And since that echidna has already initiated the event, you all have to join in!" She then winked at Sonic. "That includes you too."

Sonic shrugged. "It's not much better than getting a kiss from Amy, but, a deals a deal and I'm a man of my word. Come on you guys." He called to the rest of them and walked over to the tank of water, which Knuckles was already sitting above in a little blue seat.

With a dark chuckle, he patted the seat and nodded to Sonic. "This is perfect for you. It has your name written all over it, you hammer."

Sonic smirked and gave him a thumbs down as Rouge walked next to the tank. "Allright, boys. Ready? GO!"

Knuckles nearly had to shield himself from all the oncoming projectiles being hurled at his face. "Hey…HEY!" He shouted, glaring at Sonic. "You're aiming for my face on purpose!"

"It's in the way! It's distracting my concentration!" Sonic replied, throwing another ball at his face.

Knuckles sucked his teeth, then risked a look at Rogue for sympathy.

"Hmm…I didn't see a thing…" she chuckled, and pretended not to catch his eyes on purpose.

Knowing she was ignoring him, Knuckles grit his teeth then opened his mouth to yell at her when the target got hit and sent him plummeting into the water.

"Rooblurgigurgle!" Was his garbled protest.

Sonic laughed. "What's that supposed to be!"

"…Sounds like a warped mating call…" Shadow evenly stated, then hesitated when Rouge shot him a dark look. "…Or…distress call…"

"Thank you…" Rouge replied, then looked at her watch. "He's been in there for 20 seconds now. Let's see if he can make it."

3 seconds later, Knuckles emerged from the surface of the tank, dripping wet and his chest heaving. He leaned on the edge of the top and tried to seem casual."…Well, that was refreshing… So how'd I do?"

Rouge wrinkled her nose at his question, making a mental note of it being cuter when Tails says it, then wrote down a number for him. "Not bad."

He frowned. "Do I have to kiss Amy?"

"No…your life as been saved by a mere 7 seconds. Now get out. Okay! Next!"

This time, Amy stumbled into Tails, and knew it was him because of his height, so she didn't even bother to kiss him.

Meekly, he hopped in the seat. "…I'm ready…"

Rouge nodded. "Allright you guys. Get set…GO!"

It hadn't even been 2 seconds when the target was hit and Tails was sent head first into the water. And almost as soon as he fell in, he resurfaced in record-breaking time.

Gripping the rim of the tank, he used his tails to fly out, and splashed Rouge and Amy, who were standing the closest to the tank.

"Ahhh Tails!" Amy shrieked, trying to shake the unwanted droplets off of her. "You got me all wet, now!"

"Sorry.." Tails said "Good thing you're wearing rubber." He then landed on the ground and crossed his arms. "But, it serves you right to be wet, after blowing me the way you did. What goes around comes around."

Sonic, Knuckles and Rouge simply stared at the two of them and exchanged glances.

Rouge was the first to laugh. "Ha! Interesting! You know, Fox-boy…" she stated, lowering her voice, "…you got me all wet too from that little stunt of yours."

"Huh?" Tails questioned, innocently looking at her. "I'm sorry, Miss Rouge. I didn't mean to get you all wet. You feel much better when you're dry. …Right?"

Rouge's eyes suddenly narrowed as the howling laughter of Knuckles and Sonic rang in her ears.

"What's the matter Rouge?" Knuckles called, pointing at her. "Can't handle it? Is a minor too much for you? Ha!"

"I wouldn't go there if I were you…" she growled through gritted teeth, then turned her back to him before she lost control. Quickly jotting down a number for Tails, she glanced to Amy.

With a small grin on her face, Amy eyed Sonic, confidently, then closed her eyes and spun around.

It was only Sonic and Shadow now.

After the third turn, Amy maintained a steady balance, and stepped over to where she hoped her beloved would be. Placing her hands on his arms, she slid them up the length of his arms until reaching his face. Cupping his cheeks, she pulled his face forward and puckered her lips, ignoring the restraint she was receiving. But before her lips could make it, a soggy wet glove covered her mouth and pulled her backwards.

Panting, she shot her eyes open to find Tails wiping his hands, and Shadow rubbing his mouth with the back of his arm. "That was a close one…" he uttered to Tails. "Thanks."

Tails smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Why…YOU!"

"Okay, Shadow's next!" Rouge interrupted.

With a "Hmph", Shadow made his way to the chair and crossed his arms. He glared at Knuckles who had a dark grin on his face and readied his weapon. "Ready…"

Rouge nodded, and wiped off her notepad. "Allright, boys, GO!"

Knuckles was the first to throw his projectile at Shadow, and soon was the only one throwing them at him, 5 at a time. "There's no WAY I'm gonna miss!"

Watching him throw the balls like crazy, Sonic and Tails both paused after their first few tosses, and shook their heads, staring at him.

"Hey man, cut him some slack! You know Shadow probably can't swim!" Sonic spoke up.

Knuckles chuckled. "I know."

Shadow said nothing, but smirked. After another horde of throws, Knuckles finally hit a bull's eye, knocking Shadow into the tank, where he instantly disappeared into the water.

25 seconds had passed, and he still hadn't come upto the surface.

"Oh no…" Tails murmured, getting worried. "Poor Shadow…"

"Yeah…" Sonic agreed, then smacked Knuckles upside the back of his head. "Idiot! I told you to take it easy!"

Knuckles scoffed and rubbed the back of his head and pushed Sonic away. "He'll LIVE, Sonic. If he could survive the impact of crashing into the earth from outer-space, then I'm SURE drowning won't kill him, either."

"Do you even listen to yourself when you talk, echidna?"

Knuckles snorted and crossed his arms, mistaking the voice for Sonic's and turning around.. "Of course I do! What kind of idiot do you think I--- Oh…it's you." He stated placidly, staring right in the face of Shadow.

"See, I told you drowning wouldn't kill him. Hey, you can't use Chaos Control here!"

"Oh, but he can…" Rouge commented, stepping between them. "I never said you had to _swim _to the top. Just reach it."

Knuckles was taken aback. "What? Yeah well, I swam out, the warrior's way instead of the easy way!"

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah… Shadow, you came in at 29 seconds. You just made it." She said, jotting down his number, then stealing a glance at his dripping body and matted fur, before turning away.

"Allright, that just leaves one contestant standing… " she said with a smirk. "Sonic…you're up."

Sonic glanced at Amy. "You mean, Amy doesn't have to kiss me…?"

"No… since you're the last one you can just go right up."

"Whew…" Sonic said, wiping his brow and zipping upto the chair. "Safe for now…"

Rouge grinned. "Yes, for now. Although she hasn't given mouth to mouth to anyone yet…let's hope the best was saved for last!"

"Wha--!"

"Ready! GO!"

Knuckles chuckled while stealing a dark glance at Shadow and then tossed a softball at Sonic's head, and missed.

"Hey! HEY!" Sonic yelled, barely dodging the other Knuckles threw. "Watch the face, will ya! This is the face of a genuine hedgehog at his prime!"

"Oh really?" Shadow commented, tossing a ball at the target and missing the bull's eye. " You genuine? Don't be so delusional, faker. I'm far more superior to you."

"Ha!" Sonic retaliated. "Maybe in your dreams, faker!"

"Hmph!" Shadow replied as Knuckles laughed. "You know he's just trying to distract you to make you an easier target. You're still gonna hit the drink…and sink to the bottom, just like a hammer, you hammer!"

Amy shook her head while she watched them "Someone needs to stay on his island long enough to find himself a thesaurus!" She then stood on her tippy-toes and waved her arms at Sonic "SOOONIIICCC Over here! You better fall in quick, DARRRLIING!"

Sonic lifted his attention to Amy. "What!"

"Now!" Shadow announced, as he and Knuckles both threw their best shots at the target.

"Take this, faker!"

"Eat this, you hammer!"

Sonic barely had time to hold his breath, as the seat gave way and dropped him into the tank. He almost climbed out, when Knuckles smacked him upside the forehead with another ball and sent him against the wall of the tank where he sank into its depths.

"That oughtta do it for when you hit me in the face, earlier!" Knuckles stated proudly.

20 seconds had passed, and still no sign of Sonic was seen.

"Oh, Sonic…" Amy muttered, balling her hands into worried fists. "Please be allright…"

25 seconds passed.

Tails gulped, and ran close to the tank. "Sonic, I know you can make it!"

Rouge watched him, and began to feel for the hedgehog, but looked at her watch. "…That's 30 seconds… Knuckles…"

The echidna turned on his name. "What?"

"Rouge pointed to the tank. "Bust him out of there. He needs to stay alive for this."

With a scoff, Knuckles went upto the tank and constantly punched it before finally breaking it open 87 seconds later.

The blue hedgehog washed out in an instant, coughing, and Amy immediately ran to him. "Oh Sonic, you're allright!"

Sonic coughed and looked at her with one eye. "Well of course I am. I got it like that."

"Hm…" Rouge commented, jotting down a few notes in her notepad. "Amy, since Sonic was out for 87 seconds, that multiplied by 10 gives you…6 minutes and 10 seconds of CPR time."

Amy's eyes lit up. "That's the most intelligent thing you've said all day!"

Rouge narrowed her eyes, but set aside Amy's words. "You two can play doctor for all I care."

Amy squealed with delight and clamped her hands on Sonic's arms and straddled him. "You hear that Sonic? 6 whole minutes! Now close your eyes and stay still!"

"No!" He cried, trying to squirm free, but each struggle only made it worse.

"Hey…" Rouge chimed in "You're a man of your word, right? Let's see you bite your egoistic pride and keep this one."

"Walk away…NOW…" Sonic mouthed to Rouge, while Amy had already started kissing him on the cheek.

Rouge chuckled as she walked away, and pulled out her notes. "Allright, boys, for those of you still…unoccupied, these are the scores: Knuckles, you have a 4, Fox-boy, you've got a 5, Shadow…you have a 3, and Sonic…well…I think he's already got a satisfying outcome, don't you?" She joked, looking over at Sonic, who was practically completely covered by Amy and her "Roman hands and Russian fingers".

Knuckles scoffed and crossed his arms. "Serves him right…" With a snort, he turned on his heels and walked a short distance away from the group. Part of him was too stubborn to admit that he actually felt discouraged, and double-crossed the way Amy played with his mind the way she did.

Rouge and the remaining others watched him go for a moment, then exchanged looks.

"I'm taking a break…" Shadow said, giving Rouge a look before walking away. Rouge watched him for a moment, then looked down at Tails. "Well, Fox-boy, looks like you're the winner of first new event. Congratulations. I knew you had it in you." She smirked. "Looks like someone's making quite the comeback."

Tails blushed, and rubbed his neck nervously. "Thanks. You know that I always do my best, Miss Rouge. I really don't like to disappoint."

Rouge raised an eyebrow at the appearance of a small grin slip across his lips, but pushed it aside and held out the two remaining cards. "Ready to choose…or would you like to wait a while? Remember, we only have 12 hours before the parlor closes and we can kiss that milkshake goodbye."

Tails placed a finger to his chin in thought. " Hm…something thick and creamy or something strenuous that makes you hot and sweaty…"

Rouge gave him a wary look. "…I think you've lost the subject…"

"Huh?"

--

Well that's it for another Milkshake chapter! Man, a lot was going on. This chapter was based on a few rough ideas I had, and now…I haven't got any idea for the next one. Should they all take a break, or jump right back into the action?

Things about this chapter…

Knuckles constantly calling Sonic a "hammer" is more of a Japanese-type joke, meaning: 'someone who can't swim, will sink to the bottom of the ocean.'…like a hammer, or heavy object

When Tails was nearly in tears about girls blowing him to tease him, when he was a younger fox, girls were the main species that picked on him, instead of the guys.

Anything else? Hmm…Oh well, what should happen next? A hiatus with the group or another event?

Send in some ideas that deal with Strength!

See ya

-Mel


	6. BALL BREAKERZ

A/N: FINALLY! -- After years of starting and stopping, here's another chap of Milkshake

-

**THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE: BALL BREAKERZ!**

"Well, Fox-Boy, are you going to pick one or not?" Rouge questioned, waving the selection of 2 cards in front of him.

Perking up, Tails blinked as his eyes went from one card, to the other. "Umm…"

"Well?"

"Yeah! I sure do! I'll always want to keep going with you, Miss Rouge."

Rouge cringed and forced a nervous laugh. "Haha…great…" 'Somehow I think he's lost his innocence…' she thought then held the cards closer to his face.

"Well, what are you waiting for, pick one!"

"Umm.." he trailed off, glancing over to the group. Sonic was still getting smothered in unwanted kisses from Amy, Knuckles was standing around impatiently with his arms crossed and Shadow was nowhere in sight.

Deciding he'd wait for all of them to be there, Tails returned his attention to Rouge with a meek expression.

"Say, Miss Rouge, would you mind if I took a quick bathroom break?"

Rouge blinked at the question. "Huh? Hey I don't care, as long as you don't fall in. We've got less than 12 hours, Fox-Boy, remember that."

"I got it!" he nodded and winked at her before running into his workshop.

Grinning awkwardly by his leave, Rouge exhaled in relief and ran a hand through her hair. "Uggh what a day this has been!"

"Yeah, I'll say. All thanks to you…and this crazy game of yours…" Knuckles spoke up, walking upto her.

It crossed her mind to not even acknowledge that he was even there, but for a change, Rouge did so anyway.

"Hey, I have my reasons…!"

Knuckles raised a suspecting eyebrow and grunted. "Yeah? Well where is that reason, now? I think he stepped out on you." he seethed, referring to Shadow.

"He's taking a break, so back off."

Knowing he was going to hear something like that, Knuckles felt a little crushed, but then a glistening spark of revenge sparkled in his eyes.

"Well, Rouge, how about this. You let me win and share that milkshake with you, and I'll give you half of the Master Emerald?"

Rouge's ears twitched at the offer and she narrowed her eyes at him. "You would bribe me with the Master Emerald, knowing that rock is the power source of your island?"

Knuckles thought for a while, then nodded. "Yep. I can always construct a temporary Master Emerald…that is, until you bring the real one back."

Rouge shook her head. "As much as I'd like to accept your offer, I'm gonna have to decline. But…I will hold it to you to give me a piece of something…"

His eyes lit up as he moved closer to her. "Y-yeah?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Wh-what's that?" he asked excitedly, blushing.

"A piece of space." Rouge replied hotly and pushed past him. Knuckles just stood there dumbfounded. Growling he called after her. "Hey! Does this still mean, you'll let me win?"

"What do you think!" she called back.

Knuckles opened his mouth to speak, then chuckled instead. "I don't think you want me to answer that one Rouge."

"Then keep your mouth shut!" she yelled, then chose to ignore him for the next 5 minutes.

Walking past Sonic and Amy, she glanced at her watch. "Allright, you two, those 6 minutes plus are up."

Amy pretended not to hear her and continued to dapple Sonic's face with kisses. Poor Sonic lay sprawled out and nearly unconscious. "Get her off of me…" he managed to whisper.

Hearing his ragged plea, Amy glanced down at him and cupped his cheeks. "You REALLY want me to get off of you Sonic?"

"Yes…!" he groaned "FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HUMANE AND SANITARY, YES AMY YES!"

"What's going on out here?" Shadow's low voice spoke up as he made his way back to the group. Peering down at Sonic and Amy, he laughed. "I thought you hated her draping all over you, hedgehog. Now you're calling out her name? Just which one is it?"

"Shut up!" Sonic retaliated, becoming smothered with another kiss by Amy. Choking, he forced himself to sit up and moved her away from him.

Holding a hand to his mouth and the other to his stomach, he got up and ran into a part of the Mystic Ruins where they were plenty of bushes.

Watching him run Shadow and Rouge both laughed, then glanced at the other.

"You okay?" Rouge asked, lightly nudging Shadow with her shoulder.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"You just seemed a bit out of it."

"I just want to get this event over with so I can…" he trailed off, and Rouge strained her ears to hear him. "So you can what?"

"Nevermind." Shadow replied, a small warmth blooming to his cheeks.

"Hmmm…" Rouge pondered then glanced down at Amy who was staring at them both. "What."

Amy slowly shook her head. "Hopeless. You guys are worse than Sonic and me." And with that she walked away from them, waiting for Sonic to emerge from the bushes…or to pull her behind one with him.

Exchanging glances Shadow and Rouge laughed nervously, then parted their separate ways.

-

An hour and a half had passed since the last event and less than 11 hours were left remaining before the parlor closed!

Of course, Rouge was well aware of this. Fortunately, Sonic had returned and was conversing with Shadow about something. Knuckles stood away from them, examining a tree, while Amy sat in the grass, crossing her arms and legs in boredom.

And Tails still hadn't come back from the bathroom!

"Just what is taking him so long?" she mumbled, "It's been way too long!. Did he fall in or something? Or is he doing something else…?" she wondered, then tried to clear her mind of the last thought. "Ugh get your mind out of the gutter Rouge! Then again…I'm pretty sure he's hit puberty already…"

15 minutes went by…

Looking at her watch with a hint of disgust, she bit her lip and then looked up to where the other's were.

Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles were off to the side conversing while Amy lingered nearby, ready to cling onto Sonic's backside at any moment.

A smirk inched her lips and she shook her head. "Glad Shadow doesn't really have that problem." She spoke to herself, eyeing Shadow as she did. "…And by the way he looks, he really should…"

As if he could hear her talking about him, Shadow stopped and turned to her very briefly and nodded to her with a smirk.

Feeling a blush rise to her cheeks, Rouge quickly adverted her gaze as if she had never looked his way at all and aimlessly they fell towards Tail's workshop.

Seconds later the little fox burst out the door.

Hearing such a ruckus, Sonic and the others looked towards the workshop and were mildly amused and curious to see Tails rush out in such a manner.

"FINALLY!" Amy yelled.

"Hey buddy, what's the matter?" Sonic called as Tails ran past him.

"No time Sonic!" he called back.

Rouge raised an eyebrow the moment Tails crossed her line of vision and skid to a stop.

Panting heavily, he fought to catch his breath, leaning over.

Kneeling down to meet his height, Rouge lightly lifted his bangs out of his face and whispered. "Hey, you okay Fox Boy?"

"Oh it was horrible Miss Rouge!" Tails cried, immediately clinging to her torso. "I was so afraid! I thought it was going to eat me!"

"Huuh what!" she questioned with a bewildered expression. "What are you TALKING about!"

"A machine…a machine I built to taste medicine for me! It disobeyed its command and tried to consume my hand! I was so scared!"

From the mention of his hand, Rouge looked down to the way he was clinging to her and nonchalantly pulled him off by the scruff of his neck. "I can see your hand is perfectly fine…"

In the background, Knuckles whistled. "Looks like someone's aiming to get some bonus points before the next round! This game is rigged anyway…"

"Shut your trap echidna…" Rouge retaliated and put Tails down. Straightening out her top, she cleared her throat and pulled out the two cards again. "Now…pick one."

Eyeing both cards in silent contemplation, the little fox placed a hand over his eyes and reached out to pick a card.

Silence and amazement traveled throughout the field as Tails gazed wide eyed at his card, then squinted at it.

Looking to Rouge, he held it up so she could see it. "What's this say?"

Taking the card back, Rouge looked it over and tried to stifle a laugh. "It says BerserkerBallBreakerz. Try saying that 3 times fast!"

Sonic and Knuckles said nothing as their mouths hung open in a gape. Shadow, on the other hand, gave Rouge an odd "are you sure?" look, but said nothing.

Chuckling to herself, Rouge waved the card between her slender fingers and winked at the guys. "Looks like I don't have to explain what this event is about!"

"That isn't funny!" Knuckles vociferated, keeping his legs very close together.

Rouge grinned and turned her nose up at him. "But what you're trying to protect down there is." She replied, slyly glancing his way.

A round of laughter ensues from Sonic and Amy, while Shadow simply chuckled. Tails, as usual, was the only one looking around with a perplexed expression on his face. Curious, he gestured for Rouge to lean down, and eagerly he cupped a hand over her ear and whispered: "How would you know?"

Blushing hotly, Rouge gasped and pulled away from Tails with such speed that made even Sonic wince.

"WH-WHAT! WHAT KIND OF QUESTION----?"

"He's got a point, Rouge…" Shadow's soft voice spoke from directly behind Rouge.

Spinning around, with an even darker shade of red occupying her face because Shadow overheard, Rouge broke out in cold sweat and laughed nervously. "Uh um…I was just making a joke that's all haha…ha…"

A faint smirk eased across a corner of Shadow's mouth and his eyes narrowed. "Mmmhmmm. Sure you were. But that's allright. You can keep it to yourself." And with that, he walked off, leaving Rouge to simply watch him.

With a sigh, she returned her attention to Tails. "So, Fox-Boy, do you accept this challenge?"

Tails looked at the guys then to Rouge. "Wh-what is it that we have to do, exactly?"

Rouge smiled. "Very good question! It's simple. All you've got to do is sit in a chair, pick up the ball between your thighs and break it! …While running through an obstacle course! Whomever breaks the most balls…without scraping off their own, wins! Whoever drops the most balls, has to start over and gets a negative 1 added to their score! Sounds easy enough right?"

"Not if you're a guy!" Knuckles retaliated from the sidelines.

Ignoring him, Rouge winked to Tails and waved the card in front of him. "So, do you accept this challenge?"

Tails nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! I do!"

"Good. How about the rest of you? Do you accept this challenge…or do you wanna back out?" she mused, pretending to pout.

Hating to be made a fool out of, Knuckles clenched his fists and punched the air. "This is right up my ally! I can crush anyone's balls anyday!"

Hearing that, both Sonic and Shadow inched away from Knuckles.

"What? I'm serious! I don't care who you are, I'll crush you in a competition!"

"Yeah, so explain to us why you haven't won yet!" Sonic joked, getting Knuckles to actually think about that.

"W-well, nothing has really been in my field! That's all!"

"Tsk tsk tsk" Sonic teased, shaking his head. "You need to pick up the pace, Knuckles!"

"I-I know what to do! And don't patronize me, Sonic!"

"Allright! That's enough out of you Knuckles!" Amy scolded, then looked happily towards the field of where the next event would take place. "I want this to be over with so Sonic can spend hours in a date with meee!" Dreamily, she sighed, closing her eyes and clasped her hands together. "Ahhh I can't wait! Right Sonic?" she asked, opening her eyes to look at him, but he nor the rest of the guys were in sight!

Panicking, she looked over to where the event would take place and ran to catch up with them. "Hey wait for me!"

-

Once they all reached the area, Rouge eagerly showed them their obstacle course. There were two sets of three wooden chairs. One row for the start of the event and one for the finish. Between the chairs were 6 rings of tires, and 3 bars to limbo under.

Taking everything in, Sonic whistled and Knuckles started to sweat. "Wow that's a lot! But hey, where are the balls?"

Rouge chuckled and pointed downward. "Look down."

Blushing, Knuckles did so, as well as Shadow and Sonic, but found relief when they realized she really was talking about actual balls by their feet.

Kneeling down to examine one, Knuckles 'hmmm'ed and tossed it into the air then caught it. "Hey these are light!"

"Looks like they're made out of plaster!" Sonic added.

Tails shrugged. "Why not just use a sack of something softer than to use such rough and hard balls, Miss Rouge?"

Silence.

"Boy, you are asking the WRONG person. "she replied. "Also, I'm afraid you're going to have to sit this one out and do something else Tails."

He innocently blinked. "Huh? Why?"

"Yeah, why's that Rouge?" Sonic asked. "Is Tails the only one who's going to be spared the humiliation and pain that we're about to go through?"

Rouge chuckled. "He's going to do something else. And remember Sonic, it only hurts if you're doing something wrong. Don't squeeze those balls too much now…you might get a rash."

Half-smiling, Sonic huffed and stood near a chair.

Eyeing Rouge and Tails for a moment, Shadow smirked lightly then also stood near a chair.

Being the odd man out, Knuckles grit his teeth, but eagerly got ready for the event.

Watching them all get ready, Amy walked upto Tails and Rouge with the urge to ask a blatant question written all over her face.

"So Rouge…what are the consequences for this one."

Rouge shrugged and whispered to Amy: "There are none. You'll see why."

Amy just stared at her, then stepped back. "You're weird…" And with that, she walked away.

"Hold on Amy. There's something you can do,"

"There is?"

"Yeah, you can make sure the guys have enough balls in their seats and if you see anyone dropping some, then tell me."

Grinning oddly, Amy nodded then dashed off, her eyes lingering on Sonic. "You had better drop your balls, Sonic!"

Slapping a hand over his face, Sonic shook his head. "Can we please get on with this? All of a sudden I'm not feeling too well at all!"

Knuckles laughed and slapped him on the back. "Just hang in their blue! We're almost outta here!"

Sonic sighed. "Why me…"

"Allright listen up! You have 2 minutes in this whole event to finish! Make it worth my while!" Rouge shouted, holding up her hand. "On your marks! Get set! …GO!"

Immediately at her call, the guys squatted down in their seats, picked up one or two balls at a time between their thighs and waddled through the tires, without trying to drop any of them.

"GO SONIC!" Tails cheered from the sidelines. "You can do it!"

"Oh NO HE CAN'T!" Amy retaliated angrily. "Sonic is gonna LOSE this one, because I WANT him to! And because I said so!"

"Amy that's not fair!" Tails replied from the other end of the field.

"Can it Tails! Do you want me to blow on you again!"

"No not that!" Tails responded, shielding his head with his arms. "I HATE GETTING BLOWN!"

Unable to hold back overhearing their 'conversation', both Knuckles and Sonic started snickering, then burst out into laughter and lost their balance.

"HAHAHAHAHAAA!" Knuckles roared, starting to pick himself back up.

"That's just too funny!" Sonic chimed in, doing the same. "Oh man…it just never gets old, does it?"

Seeing the two fall, Amy rushed over to them and grabbed the plaster balls from them. "Hurry up and get up!" she shouted to Knuckles, but grinned to Sonic. "You on the other hand can take your time. I'd handle your balls anytime, Sonic." She smiled, honestly referring to the plaster ones.

But Sonic DID NOT see it that way, and suddenly felt too sick to continue. "I..I gotta go! Be back in 30!" he forced out and ran off towards the bushes again, clutching his gut.

Seeing him run off, Amy chuckled to herself. "Good! He's out! Soon, we'll be able to go out on out date, and then…dum dum da dum! Dum dum da dum!" she laughed hysterically to herself and headed back to her end of the chairs.

While all this was going on, Shadow had gone down the course twice and was heading down for his third turn, when he goto the limbo bars and ducked too soon, dropping the one ball he managed to carry.

Cursing to himself, he left it and went down to the end of the course and simply picked up another one.

"That's okay, Shadow!" Rouge called. "I'm sure you just ran out of room down there…!"

Glancing at her with a blush, Shadow nodded, but continued on.

He had already broken 5. But Knuckles was still in this game too!

He was on his fourth trip down and had already smashed 15 of the plaster balls!

"Yeah go Knuckles!" Tails called. "Show everyone how strong your thighs are!"

With a grin, Knuckles chuckled then glanced over to Shadow. "Looks like I've beaten you in this game!"

"Hmph" was Shadow's reply. "This isn't over yet, echidna!"

"Oh, I'd say it is, hedgehog!"

Soon 2 minutes had passed. Rouge looked at her watch and waved her arms above her head. "ALLRIGHT STOP! Amy, how many broken balls we got?"

Running across the field, Amy counted each shattered piece of plaster on the ground near both chairs on either end.

"Well, it looks like Knuckles has broken a total of 35 while Shadow only broke 12, no 13!"

"13!" Rouge repeated "What a low number!" Disappointed, she jotted the numbers down. "And how about Sonic?"

Grinning, Amy checked Sonic's chairs and shrugged. "Only 2!"

"Two eh? Allright"

"Um Miss Rouge?"

"Yes Fox-Boy?"

"What exactly was I supposed to do?"

Chuckling darkly, Rouge leaned down and spoke very lowly. "It's very simple. All you're going to do is tell the difference between a chicken egg and one of these balls."

"Oh okay"

"And then you're going to carry it, between your thighs to the other side of this obstacle course and you're going to have to sit down without it breaking. Sounds easy right?"

Tails shook his head. "No, not at all."

"Well too bad! This is something that isn't as rough as what he other guys had to do. Anyway, Hey Amy, you got the egg ready?"

"What egg…oh! Yeah" she said, placing it down next to one of the plaster balls.

"Allright Tails, you've got 30 seconds! On your mark, get set…GO!"

At her command, Tails rushed over to one of the chairs, hesitantly picked the egg out from the rest of the balls and slipped it between his thighs without using his hands. Discreetly and quickly, he made it through the tires, under the limbo bars and then made it finally to the chair.

"5 more seconds!" Rouge called, and by hearing that, the little fox panicked a little and as he sat down, the egg broke open.

Shuddering as he felt the yolk splatter all over his thighs, Tails made a face.

"Ugghh It's so warm and GOOEY! It's dripping all down my legs!" he cried.

Stifling a laugh, Rouge shook her head and jotted down a number for Tails. "Amy, grab him a towel, would ya?"

"Here!" Amy shouted, throwing one at Tails' head. "…Someone needs to wash your mouth out!"

Innocently, Tails took the towel off his head and peeked at her. "Huh?"

"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME!"

"Ahhh!" Tails yelped, shielding his face from Amy. "I already got all this white gooey stuff all over me, I don't need you adding to it too!"

Amy narrowed her eyes and just shook her head. "Nasty!" And with that she left him to clean himself off.

"Okay! Here are the scores!" Rouge announced. "A'hem!. Tails received a 2, Knuckles got a 5, Sonic got a 1 and Shadow…you got a 2. Sorry!"

Shadow simply scoffed and shrugged. "It's no loss to me. At least I know why I lost."

"Yeah, so do I …" Rouge mused, giving him an alluring smile.

"Uh, ahem! Don't I get some reward for winning this time?" Knuckles butt in. "I did win this round right? Right!"

Disgusted, Rouge sighed and nodded. "Yes, Knuckles, you won."

"YES!" he shouted, leaping into the air. "Eat THAT, you loser!"

Shadow half-smiled and walked away. "Enjoy winning…while you can."

"Yeah, and I WILL!"

Shaking her head, Rouge sighed and pulled out the last remaining card for the Strength events.

"Choose wisely, Knucklehead…if you are able…"

"Of course I am! I won!" he exclaimed, flexing his muscles.

Stifling a sarcastic chuckle, Rouge smiled a little and held out the remaining card in front of him. "Choose your destiny…!"

"Ooh!" Amy spoke up. "Does that mean we're gonna get to play Mortal Kombat sometime during or after all this?"

Rouge wrinkled her nose at the idea, then thought about it. "It's possible."

"Yes!" Amy cheered, jumping up and down.

Curious, Tails looked to her. "I didn't know you liked to play Mortal Kombat, Amy."

Shadow shook his head. "How can you not, as violent as this girl is?"

"Ohh" Tails nodded. "Good point!"

"I know it is."

-FINALLY

Mel


	7. Stretching the Band

**THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE: Stretching the Band**

For the next event, with only a mere 10 ½ hours to spare, Rouge guided the gang over to another tree-less clearing. And yet again, everything was already mysteriously set up and ready to go.

"Allright, boys, this may be a tough one!" she addressed with a frivolous grin.

"Hey!" Knuckles interrupted. "I didn't even get to choose my card, yet!"

Rouge gave him a weary expression, then she grinned. "I know, but you don't have to, since there's only one card left for Strength! Buut…" she playfully mused, waving the card in front of him, "unless you want to Knucklehead, then be my guest…!"

"And I do!" he replied and took the card from her. As he did, he leaned closer to her and whispered "I'd also like you to join me for dinner…"

"Uhh…" Rouge made a face that crossed both a grimace and shock."…Sure…" she responded sarcastically.

Knuckles' face brightened. "You mean it?"

"…No…" she answered skeptically. "Anyway, let's keep this going. What's your card say?"

Looking it over, Knuckles squinted then raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?"

"Just trying to read this… it says… 'pnab a4j 6ul4 …' Huh! That can't be right!"

Tapping her foot impatiently, Amy was the one to speak up. "That's because you've probably got it turned upside down!"

Surprised by her sudden straightforwardness, Sonic whistled and nudged Amy in the arm with his elbow. "Hey hey! What's gotten into you?"

Amy sighed and crossed her arms. "I'm just so tired of waiting!"

"Eh?"

"Let's just get this over with so I can go out with you already!"

Sonic broke out in cold sweat and he nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Just what makes you so sure that I'm gonna lose this Amy?"

Smiling darkly, she turned to him—her eyes flashing. "Because, Sonic, we were MADE for EACHOTHER!" she chirped, lunging at him and grabbing him around the neck.

"Ugh! Amy!" he cried, trying to pry her off of him, but he knew it wouldn't be any use.

Sulking, he looked up to find everyone's gazes on them and he instantly started to sweat. "He-hey, what are you looking at me for?" he shrugged, then looked outward towards the horizon pioneer style. "It's such a beeeeautiful day!"

"Uh huh" Rouge commented with a small and playful smile and Shadow chuckled.

"How I do **not** envy you…"

Hearing this, Sonic pretended to sulk and pouted. "Aww why not? Finally realized I'm too good for you to match?"

Shadow glanced to Amy then smirked to Sonic. "No. But 'If you've got girl problems, I feel bad for you son. ' "

" 'I got 99 problems!' " Tails joyfully joined in.

" 'BUT A & AIN'T ONE! HIT ME!' " Knuckles finished with a roar---only to get smacked in the face by Rouge.

"OW! Why'd you--!"

"You said to hit you!" She joked, smiling. She just couldn't pass that one up.

Shadow laughed, and she glanced to him. "Shadow, I never knew you got into hip-hop or rap!"

He smirked. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Rouge…" he said in such a way that BOTH Amy and Rouge to blush.

"Wow!" Amy exclaimed, releasing Sonic from her vice grip. "Sonic, you need to be more smooth like Shadow!"

Sonic blinked and peered down at her. " WHAT! Or else what? You're gonna 'leave me' for him like you almost did with Knuckles?" He chuckled, tossing a glance the echidna's way.

Briskly, Amy shook her head. "No way! Are you NUTS? Besides Shadow is way too moody for me. I can't have angsty relationship issues! My coat would turn white!"

Stifling a laugh, Rouge dared a look at Shadow, who said nothing, but slowly shook his head with a smirk.

" 'No more drama in my life, I don't ever wanna hurt agaiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIn! No more!' ' No…MORE…DRAMA! I'm tired of alll the drama! No more… NO MORE!' "

All eyes darted to Tails, who had just burst out into song. " 'No more Dramaaa in my…in my..! Liiiiiiiiiiiiiife. So tired..' "

"Yes…PLEASE stop that racket!" Amy complained, wrinkling her nose at Tails. "And you exaggerated too much!"

Scrunching back meekly, Tails slightly cowered as if he did something wrong and shrugged. "Hey, you said your coat would turn white if you were with Shadow. That meant there would be a lot of drama, right?" Then Tails started to sing again… " 'I knoooooow you see it…' "

"OKAY! That's enough!" Rouge shouted, covering Tails' mouth.

Looking down at him wriggle she shook her head in disbelief. "And just WHERE did you pick up on a song like THAT?"

Wiggling his face from behind her hand, Tails managed to squeak: "Soni—"

"SHHHHHHHHHH!" Sonic shushed, overreacting. "You're not supposed to tell anyone that!"

"But you told me I should be proud about…"

"SHH Tails! We can talk about it later"

Recoiling, he sulked. "Okay…"

Watching them both, Amy and Rouge, shook their heads while Knuckles and Shadow chuckled. Although, Knuckles' sounded more like a growl. He snuck a sneering glance Shadow's way then "hmph"ed.

And Shadow did the same and walked away from him.

Rouge watched him with a faint smile, then returned her attention back to Knuckles. "Okay what's the card say?" she asked, and to prevent him from reading upside down again, Rouge snatched it out his mitts and handed back to him right-side up.

Blinking at what just took place, Knuckles brought the card close to his eyes and read. "Stretching the Band? What?"

"Thaaat's right!" Rouge chirped.

An unsettling silence dropped on all of them, including Tails, who raised his hand. "Um Miss Rouge, exactly whose band are we stretching? Amy's or yours?"

Another hush fell over them as angry glares from the females and surprised and questionable gazes from the guys darted to Tails instantly.

"Yikes!" he cried and jumped back. "Why is everyone staring at me like that!"

"Arrrgh! I can't take it anymore!" Amy complained blatantly. She pointed an accusing finger at Tails. "YOU KNOW exactly what it is you're saying! You can't fool us!"

"Wh-what?" Tails squeaked in a shy voice, obviously confused. B-but, don't girls wear bands in their hair? Sometimes they use rubber bands too, right?"

"You LIAR! That's NOT what you were referring to!"

"Amy! Amy…take it easy on 'im, allright?" Sonic consoled, placing his hands on Amy's shoulders. "Really, calm down. I'm positive that Tails didn't realize the double meaning of what he said.

"Yeah right!" Amy scoffed and flicked a hand through her bangs in frustration. "Anybody who listens to Young Joc can NOT be innocent!"

Knuckles shrugged with a toothy grin. "She's got a point there!"

"Shh!" Sonic shushed "I-It depends on which version you're listening too! The dirty version or the edited version!"

"That doesn't matter Sonic!" Amy threw back at him.

"Allright, fine, it doesn't matter which version he listens too!" Shadow clarified, speaking up. Then he smirked. "What matters is that Sonic's to blame!"

"Yeah!" Knuckles chimed in as Amy pushed Sonic on the shoulder. "That's right!"

"Hey whoa, hold on there!" Sonic began, holding up his hands in caution while backing away from them. "We can talk this out! One at a time now!"

But the glares and sneers he received told him otherwise!

Glancing over to Rouge for help, she frowned and unraveled her wings to their full size. And with a mighty flap, she created a gust so powerful that it blew all three of Sonic's momentary nemesises away from him and would have sent them back a few yards, if they weren't as agile as they were and landed a few feet from where Tails stood.

"What was THAT for?" Amy yelled at Rouge, who simply folded her wings back behind her and rolled her shoulders. "For reminding you that we have an event to start! THEN after it's done with you can beat Sonic up or whatever!"

"Whew!" Sonic breathed. Then he winked to Rouge and gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks, Rouge! I owe ya one."

Both Shadow and Amy narrowed their eyes at this. Amy glared at Sonic while Shadow eyed Rouge, while dusting his coat and tuft of fur off from getting tossed into the air as well.

Knuckles, on the other hand, was grinning like crazy instead of seeming upset.

Noticing it, Rouge blinked and was about to ask, when Sonic beat her to it. "Hey Knuckles!" he called, cupping his hands over his mouth to further distance his voice. "Now you can say that Rouge blew you!"

"I know that!" Knuckles shouted back, his grin growing into a beam.

Greatly annoyed, Shadow tossed a glare at Knuckles who tauntingly shook a fist at him. "Ahhh haa!" he teased.

Shadow simply rolled his eyes and walked over to the giant rubberbands they would be using, and crossed his arms. Looking over to Rouge, he gave her an expectant look and she mouthed "I'll talk to you later" back to him.

Clearing her throat, Rouge walked passed the majority of them and held up her hand. "Allright listen up! Here are the rules of the event!" she announced. "You have 30 seconds to push the band as far out as you can, then 30 more to pull it back as far as you can. You will be scored on distance. Now, there will be two of you doing this at a time, so that you can be observed more closely. " She glanced over their expressions, to see if they were keeping with her so far and looked to Amy. "Amy and I will be the observers."

"What?" Amy inquired, her voice going up a few pitches. "Oh well I don't care! As long as I'll be able to watch Sonic closely!" she added with a sweet and dreamy smile and clasped her hands together.

Sonic sighed and mumbled something under his breath that nobody caught…thankfully.

Continuing on, Rouge stepped over to one of the giant rubber bands, that had either side tied to two stainless steel poles, burrowed deep in the ground. So each set up leveled about around they guy's waistlines.

"Now, before we get started, does anyone object to this? Knuckles?" she asked him first because he was the one who got this event and had to initiate it.

"Yep" he grinned, cracking his smaller knuckles.

"Okay" Rouge nodded and got her notepad ready. "How about the rest of you?"

Glancing around to everyone, Sonic shrugged then nodded. "Sure, I'm in!"

Tails agreed and Shadow simply "hmph"ed with a smirk.

"Then it's settled! Allright! First up are Knuckles and Sonic! Come on down boys!"

Hearing their names, they both headed towards a band each, but with Knuckles moving with a little more enthusiasm than Sonic.

"Wha?" Sonic wondered, watching the echidna pass by him.

Standing at the ready, Rouge stood to the side of Knuckle's set while Amy followed suit with Sonic's.

"On my command…On your marks! Get set!—Ah—ACHOO! Whew. Bless me… GO!"

At her declare, Knuckles and Sonic both rammed into the bands, giving their all to push them forward.

"Come on, Sonic! You can do it!" Amy cheered, jumping up and down with her hands in taut fists. "Stretch that band, and push it hard! HARDER! Go FASTER, Sonic! You're almost there!"

Trying not to get distracted by her words, Sonic broke out in cold sweat and tried to stay focused. "Stop… cheering…Amy…!"

"What?" Amy questioned with wide eyes. Then her brow furrowed and she brought her fists to her hips. "So, you're saying you can't push hard enough? Not even for me? Be a man Sonic! GO ALL THE WAY!"

"Amy!" he shouted, the annoyance clear in his voice.

Not able to help but hear them, Knuckles chuckled, holding back a laugh and pushed the band all the way out, as far as it could go before the poles started to get pulled up out the ground.

"Okay, and STOP! Time's up!" Rouge called. Jotting down scores for them, Rouge glanced to Knuckles. "Good job…"

Knuckles and the others, except for Shadow, gasped.

"Whoa, did Rouge just give Knuckles a COMPLIMENT?" Sonic shouted in bewilderment. "And MEAN it!" Amy added, with a shocked expression.

"Wow!" Tails chimed in. "It must be your lucky day, Knuckles!"

"GYYAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" Knuckles guffawed heartily with his fists on his haunches. "I sure hope so!"

Rouge scoffed, as did Shadow, and she looked over to Sonic. "You did pretty allright Sonic!" she called with a small smile "Especially from the things Amy was throwing at you. "

"I KNOW!" Sonic exclaimed. "Whew!"

Amy giggled innocently and Tails just looked at her with a puzzled expression. "All she did was tell Sonic to go harder and faster. What's so bad about being hard and fast? There's even a song about that!"

Silence.

"Okay, Ignorriiing yooouu!" Amy declared in a sing-song voice and turned away from Tails so he wouldn't even be anywhere near her line of vision.

"A-anyway, we've got the next part to start. Gentlemen, prepare to pull it out!" Rouge announced, referring to the giant rubberbands. Both Sonic and Knuckles shared boyish chuckles and snickers as they grabbed onto the bands.

"On your mark! Get set! GO!"

At Rouge's call, the two teens struggled with pulling the bands towards themselves this time and made many grunts apiece.

Staring blankly at them, both Rouge and Amy raised their brows and exchanged glances at the way they sounded.

Shadow burst out laughing, which seemed almost extremely out of character for him at this moment.

Alarmed, Rouge tossed her attention to him and he returned his eyes to hers.

"If only they could hear themselves!" Shadow commented with a dark and toothy grin. "This would be perfect blackmail material!"

Rouge sighed and smiled faintly. "Yes, I know. But they haven't done anything to get blackmailed…yet. So I guess we ought to let them slide this time!"

"I like the way you think!" he replied.

As they both continued to eye the other, a shout from Amy tore them out of their trances.

"SONIIIC!" she groused, annoyed. "You're PULLING on it TOO MUCH!"

"I think I know how it works, Amy!" he shouted back through the pressure.

"I swear!" Amy huffed, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning. "I never knew you could be so rough! Even Knuckles is being gentle, compared to what you're doing!"

Neither of them, except Tails, knew if that was Amy's idea of encouragement or something else.

"That's not cool, Amy!" Tails spoke up.

"Oh Gawd, what is it now?" she grimaced.

"Sonic is doing the best he can! It's not like you can help him do all that pulling! That's a man's job!"

"No, actually a man's job is pushing…" Shadow mumbled under his breath and Rouge's ears picked up on it immediately and stared at him.

"What? It's true."

"How…straightforward…!"

Shadow shrugged and returned his attention back to the youngsters before them.

"Yeah well, Sonic was doing a much better job at pushing than he is now!" Amy grumbled.

"Maybe pulling just takes a lot out of him. It does sound more painful you know…" Tails shrugged.

Gritting his teeth while trying to pull the band as far back as he could AND block out what the two of them were saying, Sonic HAD to say something!

"Could…you…two…stop talking…PLEASE!"

A throaty chuckle rose from Knuckles as he pulled the band nearly 3 times as far back as Sonic did. But Sonic was catching up!

Checking her watch, Rouge counted 13 more seconds, then threw a hand up.

"Allright! Time's up!"

With a whoosh of air, Sonic let the band go and fell on his backside, catching his breath. Knuckles on the other hand, casually let the band out his grasp and wiped the imaginary sweat from his brow. "Wow." He laughed, then lead a dark glare towards Shadow. "Didn't even break a sweat…!"

Shadow frowned. "Hey, that's MY line!"

"I know!" Knuckles grinned threateningly. "Why do you think I said it!"

Shadow's eyes widened, then narrowed. "How dare you mock me! It doesn't even sound cool when you do it! Don't you ever take and use one of my phrases ever again!"

"Haha!" Knuckles jeered "Beat me in this even and maybe I'll think about it, faker!"

"Dang, Knux!" Sonic commented. "Them's fightin' words!" he added, glancing to Shadow, who wasn't taking this too well.

Trying not to let their bickering get to her, Rouge simply sighed and flipped a page in her notepad. Clicking down the top of her pen, Rouge jotted down numbers for them both.

Sonic got a 4 and Knuckles got a 5. In the previous part, Sonic received a 3 and Knuckles got another 5. So altogether, for this event, Sonic received a 7 while Knuckles got a whopping 10.

"Allright, you two can go." Rouge directed, pointing to both Sonic and Knuckles with two fingers.

"What? Go? We didn't even hear our scores, yet!" Knuckles complained.

Rouge sighed. "Fine. You got another 5 and Sonic got a 3."

"Another 5? Oh YEAH! I got a 10! Whoo! Beat THAT, hedgehog!" Knuckles sneered, passing Shadow.

Shadow swore that if Rouge, Amy or Tails hadn't been around he would have knocked that echidna senseless for mocking and threatening him in such ways!

"You're lucky that Rouge and children are present, echidna…" he muttered, then glid off towards one of the giant rubberbands.

Watching him, Rouge called Tails up and told him to go towards the other rubberband. Not taking her eyes off Shadow, she called Amy back too.

Rouge stood near Shadow's set while Amy, disgustedly, stood near Tails'.

The two exchanged irritated and annoyed glances with the other, then both looked towards Rouge as if to say they were ready.

Rouge looked to Shadow and noted that he had his arms crossed and was staring off into space.

The thought crossed her mind to ask him if he were allright, but she decided against that and just raised her hand. "On your mark! Get set! GO!"

Immediately, Shadow and Tails pushed through the bands with all their might.

Because of Tails' height, he had to work twice as hard since the band's height matched the same level as the bangs on his head and stood on his tippy-toes.

Shadow used the glowing power from his air shoes to enable him to propel faster and further into the band.

"Wow." Amy spoke, obviously impressed and surprised by Shadow's display.

"He's really strong!"

"Is he ever" Rouge commented, enthralled.

"Go Shadow!" Amy cheered, throwing a fist into the air. "Work that body!"

Rouge threw a glare Amy's way at this, which she ignored and kept rooting for the dark hedgehog. "Keep on pushing that body, Shadow!"

"Now hold on!" Rouge began, raising her voice, "Amy, you stay on your side! Root for Tails!"

Amy laughed and turned her nose up at him. "As IF. I'm not cheering on that PERVERT!"

"I'm not a pervert Amy!" Tails whined, struggling with the band. "I'm not 16!"

"HEY!" Knuckles roared, taking offense. Sonic laughed, and nudged Knuckles in the shoulder. "He's got a point there!"

Growling, Knuckles broke out in cold sweat. Yet, he couldn't deny it!

Watching them make jokes, Amy crossed her arms, the brought her attention back to Shadow.

"WORK IT, SHADOW!"

Shadow couldn't help but smirk as he heard her, but secretly wondered what Rouge would say, if anything.

Tapping her foot while she waited for time to be up, Rouge checked her watch and was thankful 30 seconds was almost up so Amy's vocals could cease in grating her ears.

"Okay, time's up!" Rouge called and both Shadow and Tails stopped.

Jotting down some numbers in her notepad, Rouge smiled. "Good try, Fox Boy, but maybe the next part would be more beneficial for you." Trailing her eyes over to Shadow, who stood there with an expectant expression of how he did, Rouge's expression softened and she gladly wrote down a number for him. "Great Shadow." she warmly smiled, glancing back up at him.

The two stood in each other's gazes yet again, neither one daring to make a move or say a word.

Noticing it was becoming unusually quiet, Amy stepped over to Shadow and waved her hand in front of his face. "Uh Shadow?"

"Man, is he love-struck!" Sonic commented from a distance.

And to this Knuckles made a disgusted face. "Yeah, well let him be. I'm gonna impress Rouge so good it'll make both their heads spin!"

Unconvinced, Sonic slipped Knuckles a look of disbelief. "Funny, I somehow doubt that…" he mumbled.

"What'd you say?"

"Nothing! Nothing that'll interest you…" he continued with a mild smirk.

"Hmph...!" Knuckles scoffed, letting Sonic's previous comment slide. "I'll let that one go this time!"

Sonic smiled nervously at his friend and chuckled. "Why Knuckles, whatever do you mean?"

Sighing, Knuckles rolled his eyes walked away from Sonic.

"Whew!" Sonic exhaled.

Coming out of her daydream, Rouge peered down at her notepad---- and realized she had aimlessly doodled scribbles of Shadow's name all over the page.

Feeling her face warm up profusely, Rouge quickly flipped to the next page in her notepad and rewrote the scores and then added Shadow's again. "Um, Shadow?"

"Yeah?" he asked with a suave tone in his voice.

Rouge bit her lip, then cleared her throat. "You got a 4."

He smiled faintly. "Okay."

"Okay…"

"Ahem! Can we please move ON?" Knuckles vociferated, stepping between them. "Rouge, don't you have a milkshake to win…with me?" he grinned, pointing to himself with his thumb.

Rouge paused and lowered her eyes to him. Then she sighed. "Oh, just calm down! You don't even know what your total score is!"

"Ooh, could you tell us?" Tails jumped in, full of curiosity.

"Yes, yes! But only AFTER this event is finished! Now, the two of you get ready!"

Shadow and Tails got ready instantaneously.

"Ready? On your mark! Get set! GO!"

And in that very second, both contestants grabbed the giant rubber bands and pulled with all they could.

It didn't take long for Shadow to make it in the lead.

Tails did his best to keep up, but he was a good little distance away from Shadow. In anticipation to do much better this time, he spun his Tails behind him like a helicopter rotor and pulled his little body even further back.

Moments later, Shadow's grip tightened , as did his pace, and before long, he pulled the entire set out the ground.

"Okay stop!" Rouge called and quickly jotted down their numbers. "That's enough! You guys did it!"

Skidding to a halt, Shadow turned and skated over to Rouge. "Sorry Rouge…"

"Huh?"

Shadow smirked while holding up the nearly deflated rubberband with the bars still attached to it. "Sorry…I stretched your band…" he grinned darkly.

Rouge felt her face warm up in no time flat. Nervously, she took the set from him and tossed it down beside her.

"Thanks, Shadow."

"My pleasure…"

A nervous air drifted between them, but Rouge smiled and it dissipated.

'Whew, she's not offended. ' Shadow thought with relief.

Flashing Shadow another bright and bashful smile, Rouge altered her attention to the rest of the group, overlooking Knuckles' scowling expression.

"Allright you guys, listen up! Here are your scores for this event!

Sonic, you know you have a 7, Knuckles you're aware that you have a 10"

"Yes!" he grinned, eyeing Shadow. Shadow simply scoffed with a smirk.

"Shadow… you had a 4 for the first part, and a 5 for the last. So your total for this event is a 9. Tails, got received a 2, and this time, he got a 3. So Tails your total is a 5."

Hearing the scores, Knuckles sneered a dark chuckle in Shadow's direction. "Ha! Looks like I beat you after all! So I get to bother you as much as I want! You FAKER!"

"Hey!" Sonic assessed. "I could take offense to that too, ya know!"

"Stuff it Sonic! You know what I mean!"

"Ahem!" Rouge interrupted with a sly smile. "You didn't give me a chance to finish! I still have the total scores to announce!"

Putting their disputes aside, Shadow, Knuckles, Sonic, along with Amy and Tails gave Rouge their full attention.

Smiling mischievously like she was upto something, or going to give someone a shock from reading the scores, Rouge tallied up the scores and read them out.

"Allright, listen up! I'll say Knuckles' first."

Knuckles grinned, rolled out his arms and flexed his muscles.

"Knuckles, your total score is a 29."

Amy, Sonic and Tails all clapped for him and he gratefully accepted his accolades. Shadow adverted his eyes. He knew he'd toss another snide glare his way.

"Sonic, your total score is...23!"

More claps ensued as Sonic took a bow. "Thank you! Thank you! I'm here until…whenever this crazy game ends!"

Rouge half-smiled, and kept going. "Fox-Boy, your total is 26! Not bad!"

All of them clapped for Tails, including Shadow...even though they were 3 slow claps. He didn't mean to be disrespectful, but he wanted to find out what his total score was.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Shadow… … your score… is … 32!"

An ascension of 'wow's and 'cool's arose as all of them, save for Knuckles, clapped for Shadow. Sonic even whopped. "Yeah! That's what I call impressing yo' lady!"

Shadow's eyes darted to Sonic's at his last two words and he blushed. "Y-yeah..." he uttered, then lifted his voice so that all of them could hear him. "Only the highest score is suitable for an ultimate being like me…"

Having to admit, she's heard his "I'm the Ultimate" this and "I'm the Ultimate" that one too MANY times now and frankly, he needed to get a new catchphrase.

"Anyone could have gotten that score, Shadow" Rouge mentioned, glancing to him truthfully. "But no one could do it in the sexy way you did."

Sonic and Amy both looked at each other and went "Ahhhhhh!" in ascending tones, sounding as if they were in elementary school.

Tails smiled faintly for Rouge, while Knuckles stared at her in shock.

Rouge, was in shock herself as she quickly covered her mouth and looked up at Shadow.

He smiled back.

"Um...anyway, uh…The strength events are over for now. They may make a return, if we have enough time in a special event. Allright, now that's finished, we can all head back into the workshop now to find out with our next event will be." She glanced at her watch "And keep in mind that we've got nearly 9 hours left before that parlor closes! If push comes to shove, we may have to cut some events short! I want to get there and be able to ENJOY that milkshake! Allright?"

Everyone agreed and followed Rouge back towards Tails' workshop.

Knuckles kept his attention in front of him, thinking to himself, while Sonic and Amy shared snickers about Shadow and Rouge.

Shadow paced himself calmly behind Sonic and Rouge, keeping his eyes on her as she walked. A small smile inched his lips.

Tails happily bounded after them in short hops. As they made it to the door, Rouge opened it for them and glanced at them as they walked by. Meeting eyes with Shadow, she smiled and walked in with him. Seconds later, she popped her head out the door looking for Tails.

"Hey!" he shouted, peering down into the field of the Mystic Ruins that still had all the equipment strewn about from all their strength events "Who's gonna clean all this up!"

Smirking, Rouge walked over to him, grabbed Tails by the scruff of his neck and tossed him into the workshop, and closed the door behind her.

--

Wow this one was so much BETTER!

Songs mentioned in this chapter:

99 Problems- Jay Z

No More Drama- Mary J Blige

I Know You See It (Dirty Version) – Young Joc

"pnab a4j 6ul4" is part of "band the gnih " in stretching the band, the name of the event upside down.

Mel


	8. Minute Man

_**A/N: Some guys may be offended, but this story is purely for fun. It's not to lash out at anyone. But if you do get offended, don't blame me. **_

_**A/N: I think this chapter is very stupid. **_

_**A/N: Special thanx goes out to Leoandaleo **_

_**-**_

**THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE!! MINUTE MAN!**

Back inside Tails' workshop, with less than 8 hours left before the ice cream parlor closed, Rouge had become very pressed for time. Tapping her foot and glancing at her watch, she waited for Knuckles to get back from the bathroom. "What is up with choosing just before the start of a new event to goto the bathroom?" she groused.

"Sorry Miss Rouge" Tails spoke up, feeling guilty that he had started the trend.

She sighed and faintly smiled. "It's not your fault. But I suppose it's only fair. If anyone else has to goto the bathroom, feel free to and hurry up."

Hearing this, Sonic cheered and zipped off. Amy groaned and shook her head. "I don't understand why you just don't stop this crazy game already!" she complained to Rouge, who chuckled.

"You just can't wait to go on that date, can you? And what makes you think Sonic is going to lose, hmm?" Rouge grinned.

Amy's face warmed up as a soft crimson blush streaked across it. Bashfully, she placed her hands to her face and giggled girlishly. "Because…Sonic is my one and only… AND I'LL BASH THAT TRUTH INTO HIM UNTIL HE HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO ACCEPT IT!!! HAHAHAHA!!" she enthusiastically cackled, her eyes ablaze with crazed confidence.

Then just as quickly as it arrived, it vanished and was replaced by her usual cute demeanor. "Oh! That reminds me!" she chirped, and ran off towards the direction of the bathrooms.

Tails, Shadow and Rouge both watched her go. Rouge shuddered. "Why do I have that nagging feeling…"

"…That something is going to happen…?" Shadow finished, wondering the same.

"Huh?" Tails curiously wondered, glancing between the two of them. "Something like what?"

Before Rouge or Shadow had the chance to answer, a loud yell from Sonic was heard.

"Amy!!! What are you doing in here?!! …No! I don't want any!…I don't care how good you think it tastes, get out of here right now!!!"

"You don't get a chance like this everyday Sonic, now take it, NOW!" she cried.

"No!"

"…I'll…I'll leave you alone for the rest of this event, if you do it!"

There was a pause. Maybe Sonic was thinking about it?

"What the hell are they arguing about?" Shadow inquired, making a face.

Rouge shrugged and shook her head. "Don't ask me! But whatever it is, it sure sounds scandalous…!"

Tails blinked, trying to understand what was going on amongst the confusion. "What's wrong with Amy having something on her she wants Sonic to eat?"

Silences fell over them as both Shadow and Rouge glared at the fox.

Tails jumped and shied away. "...Wh-what? What did I do??"

Narrowing his eyes at him, Shadow half-smiled. "I wonder about you…"

"So do I…" Rouge agreed. "First the innocence was cute, now it's highly questionable of being real or not."

Shadow nodded with a sly grin, continuing to eye Tails suspiciously. "I agree… I don't think it was all accidental at all…"

Rouge sighed. "Well I guess we'll find out sooner or later. Anyway, Tails, go get Sonic and Amy out of the bathrooms and Knuckles too."

Nervously, Tails nodded then ran off to do what he was told.

Watching him go, Rouge heaved a sigh of relief and sat down on the edge of the stage.

"Finally, they're gone…!" she smiled, stretching.

Smirking, Shadow stepped over to her and sat down next to her. "Yeah…I thought we'd never get any time to ourselves…"

"Yeah…" Rouge agreed, then she realized what he actually said and did a double take. "Wh-what!?"

"...You heard me…" Shadowed smirked, inching closer to her.

Her heart beat so fast in her chest, she couldn't think straight. "Uh um... Wait a minute, you're not trying to bribe me just so you can win this contest are you, Shadow?"

Shadow blinked at her response, not expecting it, and chuckled. "I don't give three bits of a damn about this contest to be honest, Rouge…"

"Huh? Wh-what?? Then why—"

"…I think... the answer is pretty obvious…" he smiled, placing his hand on hers.

Suddenly at a loss for words, Rouge bashfully eyed him with her mouth hung in a gape.

Chuckling, Shadow slipped a finger under her chin and shut her mouth for her as Tails came back into the room with Knuckles not that far behind him.

Shadow turned to face them and when he did, Rouge unconsciously did the same.

Trying to come back to her senses, Rouge inhaled and exhaled deeply then put her focus on the two of them.

"Well…what's going on?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

Whistling happily for some unknown reason, Tails pointed to Knuckles with his thumb and answered: "Oh nothing much. He wasn't doing anything weird, just shining his helmet."

Shadow and Rouge's eyes both went wide and their attention darted directly to Knuckles, who jumped from their intense gazes. "Hey!! It's not what you think!!" he defended, reaching behind him and actually pulling out a shiny gold helmet. "I really was shining a helmet for this next event!" he exclaimed intently, fidgeting uncomfortably in their gazes. "Since it's not a strength event I may need to watch myself!"

"..."

"H-hey this IS Tails' workshop after all! What else would you expect to find in here??"

"..."

"I-I'm serious!! I just found this!"

Their eyes narrowed, Shadow and Rouge exchanged wary disbelief towards the other, then returned their attention to Knuckles.

"We don't believe you…" Shadow and Rouge spoke in unison, causing Knuckles to take a step back.

Glancing around, he shrugged then pointed to Tails. "A-actually this is his helmet anyway! I found it while on my way out of the bathroom…!"

Hearing this, Tails stepped upto Knuckles with a nervous smile, recognizing the helmet. He had forgotten that he left it in there after working on a previous creation.

"Thanks Knuckles, but I can shine my own helmet!" the little fox confirmed. Gleefully, he took the item from Knuckles and hummed on his way near the stage in the workshop.

Silence.

"Uhhh.." Knuckles raised a confused brow. "Um—don't think I want to comment on that one…"

"... ... ...Anyway…" Shadow interrupted.

And Rouge picked up where he left off. "…Why did you have to shine it in the bathroom of all places? ….UNLESS you were doing something else?" Rouge challenged with a glaring smirk.

Watching her make such an advance towards Knuckles, Shadow looked to her discreetly, but didn't say a word.

His story being denied, Knuckles sucked his teeth. "I just TOLD YOU that I found it on my way OUT of the bathroom! But fine! Believe whatever you want!" Then he glared at Shadow and grinned. "I'll see you in the loser's bracket!"

Shadow scoffed. "Whatever…"

The two males eyed each other with mutual menacing glares as Knuckles returned to his seat.

Watching the two, Rouge smirked a little and tried to hold back a laugh.

"What's so funny?" Shadow asked, turning to face her.

But Rouge denied to answer. "Heehee nevermind. Anyway, Tails!!" she called to the young fox, " go find out what's going on with Sonic and Amy! And tell them to hurry up, we haven't got all day!"

Nodding, Tails left his helmet on the stage and ran off to contact his friends.

The moment he approached the bathroom door, he raised a fist to knock but stopped when his friends' voices drifted through the door.

"I can't believe I'm going through with this..." Sonic's voice echoed through the door.

"Yeah well, there's no harm in sharing! I just wanted you to have it." Amy's voice responded.

There was a pause and the sound of shifting body movement on the other side of the door. "I never liked the taste."

"What?? You're weird! Everyone I know likes it! Except for Shadow. Who knows WHAT he likes."

"What's she mumbling about?" Shadow's low voice hovered over Tails' shoulder.

"I don't know…" was Rouge's reply. Turning around, Tails nearly jumped from seeing both Shadow and Rouge pressed lightly against either sides of the bathroom door.

"Hey you guys are eavsdropp--!"

"Can it… So were you!" Rouge scolded, covering Tails' mouth with her hand.

" And if you don't keep quiet, Shadow and I will tell them that this was YOUR idea!"

Shadow nodded with a grin, playing along, but Tails thought he was being serious and gulped. Slowly, he nodded.

"Good." Rouge smirked "Now…back to invading their privacy…!" she chirped.

After a few more sounds of shifting feet shuffling on the floor, both Shadow and Rouge suddenly froze in their places at the sounds of slurping coming from the other side of the door.

"Is that what I think it is?!" Rouge declared in a hushed whisper.

"It can't be…!" Shadow replied in the same tone.

"Muhe Hemmy hub—" Tails mumbled, his words coming out extremely muffled from Rouge's hand clasping tighter over it. Peering down at him, she moved her hand just enough to make out what he was saying.

"What?"

Tails exhaled, then took a deep breath, being able to breathe freely again. With bright eyes, he looked up at Rouge. "I said, maybe Amy has some candy or something she wanted to give to Sonic but he doesn't like it?"

Rouge raised an eyebrow as Shadow chuckled. "What kind of candy? Heh heh. Perhaps Sonic doesn't like receiving 'Blow Pops'…hey!" he grunted, turning to Rouge who was cracking her knuckles playfully. "Watch what you say around here! I don't want to have to pinch you again!"

"Pinch…?" Shadow repeated with an interested and surprised expression. "Is that what that was??" he wondered, glancing behind him. Then his features relaxed to a suave composure and he raised an eyebrow. "…I'm keeping my eyes on you, Rouge…"

Rouge smiled and winked at him. "After that pass you just made to me a few minutes ago, what won't you do?"

Shadow smirked. "I'd rather not say…."

Rouge's eyes perked up in curiosity. "What won't you do Shadow??"

The moment Shadow opened his mouth to speak, an outrageously loud sound came from behind the bathroom door.

"Sonic!" Tails called, recognizing the voice, but Rouge quickly covered his mouth again and strained her ears to listen.

On the other side of the bathroom door---

Standing inside the bathroom with a curt half-frown across his face, Sonic peered down at the small flavored ring-pop Amy had offered to him. "Augggh yuck…!!!" he sputtered.

"Yuck?! Aww come on, Sonic it's not so bad! But alright you had your turn! Now let me get lick of it too!"

Grimacing, Sonic handed the ring back to her, of which she gladly snatched from him. "Ew Amy…That's practically kissing…"

"Duh! That's why I want to do it! You wouldn't kiss me any other way, now would you?"

"Uhh…I think you've missed the point Amy…"

"It doesn't matter! With this, we're practically engaged!"

Sonic shivered at the word. "…Uggghh... Please don't say that Amy…"

Ignoring his plea, Amy gleefully stuffed the candy into her mouth and sucked on it vigorously.

Sonic felt a sudden sickness rise in the pit of his stomach from the sounds and sight of Amy devouring the flavor of that ring pop with vacuum-like suction.

"Amy please stop that…! If you're going to...do that, don't do that around me!"

"Then close your eyes Sonic!" she retaliated, taking the ring pop out of her mouth for only a few seconds.

Defeated, Sonic gave up and proceeded to just leave the room without her.

But the second he passed her, she grabbed him by one of the quills on his back and pulled him back to her. But she had pulled him so roughly, that Sonic lost his balance and fell to the floor. And oddly enough, Amy followed suit with a cry.

"Ahh!! SONIC!!"

"A-Amy!!"

Back in the main section of the workshop, Shadow, Rouge's, and now Knuckles', eyes widened from what they heard .

"Oh my—just what are they--?!" Rouge stammered, pressing her ear even harder against the door.

Casually Shadow shrugged. "Maybe they tripped over the other's feet and accidentally copulated when they fell…" he muttered sarcastically with a grin and was quickly smacked in the shoulder by Rouge.

"Rouge! What was—"

"SHHH!!" she shushed "Shadow!!"

"What??" he asked, badly attempting to pretend not to smile at his own joke. "Do you have a better explanation of what they could be doing?"

"U-um!! Well--!" Rouge stammered

"Hey shut it you two, I'm trying to listen!" Knuckles growled, pressing against the door even more to listen.

"What!" Rouge spoke up, turning to the brash echidna. Crossing her arms in disgust, she leaned against the door and curled her lips at him. "Who do you think you're talking to!?"

Seeing where this was going, Tails cautiously tried to calm them.

Shadow on the other hand, simply crossed his arms and watched them; keeping his eyes darkly on Knuckles.

"H-hey you guys come on!" Tails cried, waving his little arms to get their attention.

But of course, his small attempts made no effort as Rouge and Knuckles continued to argue.

"Not only are you a thief, but you're a nosy one too!"

"Oh you're one to talk!" Rouge shot back, resting her backside against the door and tauntingly leaning forward with her arms still crossed. "At least I don't go around here pilfering helmets to 'shine'!" she jeered with a smirk.

Knuckles' eyes flashed a new tint of red as he raised a fist. "What did you say??! Don't think that just because that Shadow is here that I won't hold back against you!"

Hearing this, a smirk smoothed over Rouge's lips as she glanced to Shadow.

Catching on to what she planned to do, he nodded to her and continued to watch them.

"Oh yeah?? Try to hit me then!" she teased.

"You guyyys!" Tails whined.

Back in the bathroom, Amy slowly sat up and rubbed her head. "Owww! Did you have to fall so hard Sonic!!"

In retaliation, and extreme embarrassment, Sonic said nothing and remained laying face first on the bathroom floor.

Becoming annoyed at him not answering her, Amy pouted and glared down at him. "Hey Sonic! Get up already! That floor's dirty!"

'I've already been violated' he thought, referring to Amy falling on him.

Pouting again, Amy 'humphed' and crossed her arms. "Fine, don't answer me then! Oh! Oh no!" she gasped, looking around frantically for the ring pop. "Where did it...oh! there is it!"

she joyfully exclaimed when she found it. Reaching out for it, a sudden crash from the other side of the door made her jump.

In a blur of blazing red, Knuckles fell face first, taking the door with him, as he fell on top of poor Sonic.

"What the--!" he wondered, trying to pry his knuckles out of the door. "What the heck did I just--"

"SONIC!!!" Amy screamed, dashing over and lifting the door, with Knuckles still attached to it, off of her beloved hedgehog.

"Oh Sonic are you alright??!"

"Ngho" was Sonic's muffled response.

Taking his 'no' with great concern, Amy tossed the door aside and began to help peel Sonic off the floor.

"HEY!" Knuckles cried, falling backwards onto the floor, squirming to pull his knuckles out of the door.

Shadow merely chuckled at this while Rouge nearly busted a gut laughing hysterically.

"That's what you get!!" she mused, hugging her aching sides.

"Just you wait bat girl! Just wait 'til I get my mitts free, I'll knock that stupid smile off your face!"

Of course, this comment caused Shadow to raise a brow as he peered down at Knuckles, but before he could comment, Amy stormed upto them.

"SHUT UP!" Amy yelled, suddenly kicking the door clean off knuckles' mitts.

Rouge, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow all watched the flailing door's ascent as it sailed through the air in a smooth arch and landed in a far corner of the workshop.

"Whooooooooa" Tails exclaimed as Knuckles did the same.

Blinking in awe, Rouge turned abruptly to the fuming pink female. "What the—"

"We've got an event to start! I want this game to be over with so Sonic and I can have our date!!"

Tails sighed while Shadow chuckled and crossed his arms.

"That again Amy?? Not to sound rude or anything, but why not just give it a rest?" Tails gestured with a shrug.

"BECAUSE I CHOOSE NOT TO!!!!" Amy roared, her eyes alit with flaming determination.

The others weren't too sure about it, but they could have sworn they felt the room shake after that…

"I would also like to get this game over with" Shadow stated plainly. Discreetly, he snuck a glance at Rouge as if to remind her of his previous comment to her earlier on the stage and she responded with a nod.

"You're right. Amy, make sure Sonic is alright We're gonna need all our contestants before this game is over!"

Knuckles scoffed and tossed a glare at Shadow.

"Loser!" he mouthed with a grin. But Shadow simply ignored him.

Seeing this, but knowing Shadow could handle himself, Rouge motioned for them all to follow her near the front of the stage.

--

"Ahem! Now that we've settled our 'issues'..." Rouge announced, but trailed off as she glared at the discontented faces of Knuckles and Amy. Sonic simply slouched in his seat and shrugged.

"...for the time being anyway...let's hurry up and get this even over with! We've got less than 8 hours left now!"

"Hooray" Sonic drolled devoidly.

Ignoring his outburst, Rouge continued on.

"Alright, as you all know, Knuckles was the winner of the previous event, so he gets to choose the next one."

"'Bout time I get some appreciation around here!" Knuckles cheered, jumping up from his seat and heading upto Rouge.

Rouge said nothing as she watched him eagerly bound over to her.

Half-frowning, she gestured to the glass bottle and mat on the edge of the stage.

Rouge watched silently as the bottle spun and landed on speed.

"Ooohhh, speed huh?" she mused with a smirk. "The boys ought to love this type of event!" she snickered, glancing to Sonic and Shadow.

"Speed?? Oh yeah! Now that's my kind of event!!" Sonic cheered.

Shadow said nothing at first. His eyes lingered entwined with Rouge briefly before he turned to the exuberant hedgehog.

"Don't get so excited. You'll lose."

"What! Come on, give me more credit than that Shadow!"

"Hmph"

"Hey, pipe down over there!" Knuckles cut in. "I'm the one who chose the next event! And speaking of which...!" he trailed off, eagerly turning to Rouge.

"Pick a card..." she stated nonchalantly as she held up the paper items directly in front of his face.

Blinking, Knuckles raised a brow and glanced up at her.

"What's your--"

"Pick one!!"

"Fine!"

"Then, hurry up!"

Seeing the two starting to bicker again, Amy groaned and stood up. "Will the BOTH of you be quiet so we can finish this game!? Sheesh!"

Equally annoyed, Knuckles and Rouge glanced towards Amy then themselves.

In a huff, Knuckles swiped a random card and read it over.

"Minute Man...?" he murmured.

And the second he did, a deeply mischievous grin spread across Rouge's face.

"Ouch...what a title!" Sonic commented, making a face. And as soon as he said that, all eyes were on him.

Uncomfortable with them eying him, he jumped in his seat. "Wh-what the-- H-hey! Just because I'm fast, don't think I'm--!"

"And how would you know, Sonic?" Rouge tauntingly asked. "The only way you would know is from experience..."

Cringing, Sonic broke out in cold sweat and uncomfortably glanced around the room. "W-well I..."

"Do you have any experience, Sonic?" Rouge prodded.

Annoyed, Amy stomped in front of him. "I'll be the judge of that!"

Amused, Rouged chuckled and crossed her arms. "Actually, I will."

Shadow's eyes lightly trailed over her as she said this and soon everyone else's eyes were on her.

"Mmmm for this event, all of you males will have to do your best at staying 'in the mood'. Whoever can speak their sweet nothings the best will receive more points. You will also have songs to work with chosen by me at random."

Sonic shrugged, easing up from the attention being away from him. "So, what does this have to do with speed? It sounds just like the second event we had."

"Yeah, sure, bring up another one of them I failed miserably at!" Knuckles complained.

"Hey it's not Sonic's fault you suck, Knuckles!" Amy retorted with her hands on her hips.

Shadow chuckled to himself at this and Knuckles gave Amy a smug look. "I know YOU'RE not talking about sucking...!"

"H-hey be quiet, Knuckles!!" Sonic shushed glancing nervously at Amy.

Rouge grinned and smoothed a lock of hair behind her.

"I'm glad you asked that, Sonic." Then she glanced to Tails and motioned for him to come upto her.

Surprised, he pointed to his nose. "Who me?" Then he hopped out of his seat and scampered over to her. "Yes, Miss Rouge? What is it?"

Smirking, Rouge leaned down and whispered mischievously in Tails' ear.

When she pulled back, he looked up at her happily and nodded. "Ok, I'll be right back!"

Watching him go, the group exchanged their concerns.

Sonic sighed. "I can tell I'm not gonna like this!"

"Great! Then you'll lose for me, right Sonic?" Amy asked hopefully.

"I didn't say that!"

"Oh great..." Knuckles grumbled, looking at the smug bat.. "What are you upto now?"

"Well that depends, do you accept this event?"

"Do I..." Knuckles glanced around the room and checked Shadow and Sonic's expressions.

Shadow's features remained calm and nonchalant while Sonic grinned and pointed to his wrist where a watch would be if he had one. "8 hours left!" he mouthed.

"..." With a sigh, Knuckles returned his eyes to Rouge and crossed his arms. "Yeah sure."

"Great!" she chirped.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. Rouge seemed to be a little too happy about this next event...

Moments later, Tails came bounding out from a backroom in his workshop pushing a cart with a microwave on top of it.

"What in the--" Knuckles trailed off staring at the microwave.

Equally intrigued, Sonic, Shadow and Amy glanced at the device, then noticed several individually wrapped bags of popcorn next to it.

Sonic and Amy exchanged glanced and it was clear they didn't get why Rouge wanted a microwave for a speed event.

But the whole thing hit Shadow and with a smirk, he shut his eyes and covered his face with his hand.

'I can't believe she's doing this...'

"Thank you, Fox Boy" Rouge said with a wink.

Blushing lightly, Tails nodded then went back to his seat.

"Now that we have everything we need, let's get started!" Rouge enthusiastically cheered.

"Everything you need?" Amy inquired. "Just what is the popcorn for?"

Rouge chuckled. "Allow me to explain. As I already mentioned, for this event you will each have to speak sweet nothings. Since I'm the host, they will be directed towards me, but if you have a particular significant other in mind, you may think of them instead. I'll just be scoring your _performance_." she continued, with emphasis on the word 'performance'.

Amy shrugged. "Okay, so? That doesn't explain what the snacks are for."

"The popcorn will be the timer in this event. You boys will have 5 whole minutes to talk you best to me as if I was the woman of your dreams. I want to see some real effort in this one!"

"Timer?" Sonic questioned, then his eyes widened in shock. "You've gotta be kidding!! That's dirty, Rouge!"

Rouge winked at him. "You know what they say about this kind of thing...! And for you dear Sonic...don't be disappointing. Remember, Amy's watching you!"

"That's right!" Amy stepped up. "But you better only last a MINUTE in this event, and ONLY in this event! There's going to be a date with our names on it! Got that??"

Sonic cringed and ran a hand through his quills while Shadow chuckled to himself.

Knuckles appeared ecstatic and enthusiastically punched the air. "No problem! It'll only take me 8 seconds or less!!"

Silence coated the room.

Sonic and Amy had to both do their best to withhold their laughter while Rouge and Shadow just shook their heads.

Tails casually looked over to Knuckles and whispered across the room. "I think that defeats the purpose, Knuckles!"

Hearing that, Amy's eyes darted to Tails and she narrowed them at him.

Feeling a hot glare on him, Tails looked to Amy and jumped in his chair. "Wh-what, Amy?? I'm sure the songs are longer than 8 seconds!!"

Annoyed, she just rolled her eyes at Tails and looked to Rouge. "So what are the consequences for this event?"

A devilish grin marked Rouge's lips. "I think the pressure to meet expectation is more than enough! So what'll it be, boys? Think you can go longer than the popcorn or will the popcorn outlast you?"

"Can we eat it afterwards?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't care." Rouge replied, ripping the plastic wrap off and tossing a bag in the microwave. "So who's first?"

"I'll go." Shadow remarked, standing from his seat.

Awed, Rouge watched him take his chair and bring it close to the stage.

They eyed the other wordlessly for a few seconds, then she turned to pick up her notebook and sat on the stage in front of him. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out an video ipod with tiny speakers attached to it. Picking a song, she turned the volume all the way up.

"Amy, could you start the timer, please?" she asked.

Casually, Amy strolled to the microwave, punched in 5 minutes and pressed the start button.

Shadow gathered his thoughts as the upbeat melody of Lava Reef Act 1 played.

"You listen to THAT?" he thought out loud and she playfully shushed him. "You're wasting time!"

Smirking, he gave her a look that reminded her of their conversation earlier, then settled into the proper mindset.

"When I look at you, I see the vastness of what is and what may be. I wanted to talk to you for quite some time, but I thought you wanted nothing to do with me. But one predicament led to another and soon you were swooning in my arms. We first shared eye contact, then kiss. Feeling your succulent lips against mine made me lose my mind. I had no idea what was to become of us next, but I knew what I wanted and I knew what you wanted.

"I undressed you first in my mind and then with my hands. Your skin was delicate and soft and sweet to the taste. I savored every delectable detail of you and shuddered when your fingers sculpted mine.

"The willing desire to be yours rose within me. Softly, my lips caressed your curves and I eagerly brought you closer to me.

"...Indulging in this moment and encasing ourselves within it, we became invokers of our desires and overtaken by seductive actions... Uh..." he paused and glanced at the microwave. 4 seconds were left on the countdown.

Silence filled the room from him stopping and Rouge and Amy secretly wished he'd continue. But when the microwave dinged, their hearts sank.

Rouge's mouth hung in a gape and she stopped the song from playing without realizing.

It took her a good 3 seconds to find her voice.

"..Sh...Shadow..th-that was..."

Blushing, he adverted his eyes from her and stood up. "E-excuse me..." he said softly and made his way towards the bathroom.

Sonic whistled while Amy and Tails clapped for Shadow.

Knuckles silently watched him go. He had to admit he was impressed. But he was going to do better!

Nonchalantly, he strolled upto the microwave, took out the bag of popcorn and shook it up. "So who's next?"

Rouge was still in shock and didn't hear him at first. She glanced to him without an answer and jotted down a score for Shadow.

Popping a handful of the snack into his mouth, Knuckles asked again. "Hey, did you hear me, bat girl? I asked who's--"

"You are!" she shouted, just to see his reaction.

Nearly choking on the popcorn, Knuckles coughed and spit it back into the bag.

"Ewww!" Amy exclaimed making a face. "Knuckles, that's disgusting!!"

"Well, at least we'll know which bag is his!" Sonic joked, slouching in his chair.

"Ewwwwww..."

Rouge raised an eyebrow, then dismissed his behavior as Knuckles being...Knuckles.

"Alright" she began, putting a new bag in the microwave and going through her list of songs. "Get ready...now!"

Knuckles cleared his throat as the melody of Sandopolis Act 2 started up.

"What the-- what's with the old music?"

"If you guys can do well to this kind of music, then you know you're good. Now stop wasting time!"

Knuckles snorted in retaliation but started saying what came to mind.

"You remind me of a ghost I saw once. In a dark temple with hardly any light, uh I saw you there. You were covered in a sheet, a dusky sheet. I went up to ask you if you had lost your mind being in such a place like this. Ghosts don't scare me, but I'm sure they scare you."

"... ..."

"I wanted to ask what you were doing there and you tole me you were dancing. Dancing for me. While this sounded crazy, I went along with it. Why turn down a pretty girl who's dancing for me? You weren't getting in my way, so I figured I could take a break.

"I punch you in the shoulder to say what's up and you kicked me back. I guess you were in a bad mood, but you usually are.

"Sometimes I think you're always having that time of the month or something, drives me crazy. Why can't you just say hello to me?

"But surprisingly, you grab me by the arm and pull me to really dark corner. I wonder what you're going to do to me

"Knowing you, you'd probably kick me again, but instead you kiss me. I have no idea where that came from, but I do the same.

"You move your arms around me slowly and I do too. Then you start moving your hands all over me. At first, I go along with it, but this is you and you can't be trusted! I figure you're going for my Master Emerald shards and my leg reacts on its own and connects my knee to your face to get you away from me."

Rouge's expression hardened and she glanced at the microwave. 2 minutes left. "..."

Knuckles started to sweat at this and cleared his throat. "I-uh I mean..."

Groaning in irritation, Rouge stopped the music and the microwave.

"Finally it's over! Thank GOD!!" Amy shouted in relief.

Sonic chortled while Tails shook his head.

Around this time, Shadow came back into the room and sat down.

"I had a feeling he would go next... Heh, looks like I spared myself from listening to him."

Rouge sighed and gave him a pleading look. "You have no idea." she mouthed.

"So, how did I do?" Knuckles asked with a grin.

Rouge stared at him with an expressionless look on her face. Then she returned her attention to her notebook and gave him a numerical score. "Have a half-popped bag of popcorn, Knuckles."

"Huh?"

"Think of it as a consolation prize."

"A prize so early on, huh? Ha!" he laughed and tossed Shadow a threatening glare.

Shadow only rolled his eyes.

"So who's next?" Sonic asked, then he looked to Tails. "...I think you're too young for this whole game but, you seem like you're having fun."

Tails nodded with a beaming smile. "I am!"

Amy narrowed her eyes at Tails and crossed her arms. "Sonic, why don't you go?"

He thought about it. "Ahh...yeah you're right! May as well get this over with!" he agreed still slouched in the chair.

"Then get yourself up and come...here." Rouge commented with a smirk.

Sonic blushed but started to stand. "...Did you really have to say it like that? You're going to get me hurt!" he cried, glancing at a fuming Amy.

"Make it quick, Sonic." Amy commanded in a menacing voice and Sonic cringed. "...Why do I always have to be such a nice guy? Oh well...!"

He took a seat in front of Rouge while she had gotten everything set up. Pressing a button on her ipod, the catchy tune of Mystic Mansion cued up.

Sonic immediately recognized the song and started dancing in the chair. "Aw yeah!! This is what I'm talking about!"

Rouge chuckled but gave him a look to get started.

"Let's see... Running across the girl of my dreams is..."

In a blurry pink dash, Amy zipped right in front of him. Her possessive green eyes glowered at him, making him stammer. "You had better be thinking about me..." she demanded, her voice 2 tones deeper than normal.

"I uh..." Nervous, he glanced to Rouge for some sympathy but she only pointed to the microwave.

Sighing, Sonic scratched his head, and held down his stomach's contents, as he focused on Amy and said his words to her.

"Th-the girl girl of my dreams is someone I...always...wanted to...come across. I...may not have much of any time to spend with her f-from being so busy, but if I did, I would love b-being with...with her..." He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment to block Amy out and calm down.

Then he reopened his eyes and tried his best to stay steady.

"...The girl of my dreams would be someone special. To show her how special she is to me, I'd give her anything she'd ask me to. If it was reasonable, of course. And I'd...even go on walks with her. ...Walks are so slow! But if she'd the best girl for me...I'd have to take things slow..."

"And how would you kiss me, Sonic?" Amy growled, earnestly awaiting a response.

Sonic started to sweat and his hands gripped the edges of the chair. "...I...I'd...close my eyes ...and imagine that something extremely painful wasn't staring back at me in the face and picture someplace peaceful like a flower field... A-And..."

"Oh, Sonic, you need to relax..." Amy assured, her voice freakishly soothing and tender. Happily, and with a blush streaking her cheeks, she went over to Sonic and sat lightly on his leg.

Sonic became deathly quiet and didn't move a muscle.

Amy moved closer pushing Sonic down and climbing on top of him.

"Sonic why don't you stop being scared and enjoy it." Amy whispered as she lowered her head and kissed him. Sonic stopped breathing and his cheeks grew redder than knuckles fur.

"Amy thats enough your scaring him." Rouge said from behind them. Sonic looked up and saw everybody looking at them smiling at them.

"..." Feeling nausea well up in him, the second he glanced at Amy, he disappeared.

He left so fast out of the room that only a dust cloud in his form was left behind.

With his support gone, Amy fell to the floor and rubbed her backside. "Owww, Sonic! That was too rough!"

No one said a word, but Knuckles burst out laughing.

Rouge sighed and stopped both devices and took the popcorn out.

"There goes another dud." Then she looked at Amy. "I understand you desperately want Sonic to lose, but if you had just stayed out of this the outcome may have been different. I'd call him back out here, but I'd rather not disturb him ...puking his guts out..."

Amy glared at Rouge but stood up. She knew Rouge was right.

She's been interfering too much.

Grumbling, Rouge gave Sonic a number then pointed to Tails.

"Let's go, Fox-boy."

"Coming!" he called and hopped into the seat in front of Rouge.

Without much care, Rouge tossed another bag in the microwave, set the timer and picked a song without paying attention.

J Holiday's Bed started up and she quickly turned it off. "Whoops...Wrong one! H-here you go, Fox-Boy." she stammered, then recovered from her folly by playing Chrome Gadget instead. She figured it fit him.

Tails recognized the old song but didn't like it very much. But, he got into it nonetheless.

"If the girl of my dreams was here, I'd take her with me to a park someplace. We'd even hold hands. I think we'd have a good time. But before I took her back home, we'd have even more fun! Maybe we'd even go for a swim. Girls love getting wet, don't they?

Then we'd go get some ice cream! Girls love lots of cream too.

"Maybe if I treated her to a banana split, she'd give me some delicious pie! Mmm I love eating my pies hot and creamy! It's the best!

"After that, I'd take her back to her house and then go with her upto her room. We'd stay up alll night playing with each other until the sun came up.

"Even I'd get tired of playing video games THAT long. Whew! If she ever asked me to come again, I'd gladly take her--" he hiccuped "--up on her offer!"

Supposedly done, Tails' expression changed from inquisitive to innocently expectant. "So, how did I do, Miss Rouge?"

Before she could answer, he glanced at the microwave and realized the song was still playing.

"Oh no... I lost!" he pouted.

Rouge smiled faintly and jotted down his score. Turning off the music and stopping the microwave, she stood up.

"It's alright, Fox-Boy. This was a bit extreme for you. ...But I had to see if you really were innocent or pretending."

He blinked. "Huh?"

Smiling warmly, she shook her head. "Oh forget it. Anyway, here are the scores: Shadow, you got a 5, Knuckles, you got a 3..." she glanced at him. "I should have given you worse than that for talking about kicking me, but it wasn't like you knew any better."

Knuckles raised a suspicious eyebrow, but she continued on before he could protest. "Sonic...received a 4..." she trailed off, glancing at Amy, who turned up her nose at Rouge. "And Fox-Boy, you've got a ...uh... a 3."

His eyes widened. "A 3? Oh no...!"

"Yeah, afraid so. You didn't hold out long enough, but you did put your best into something you hardly know anything about yet."

"Oh..." Tails answered unsurely. "Is that a good thing?"

"Yes."

"Oh okay!"

Nodding, Rouge glanced to Shadow.

Knowing what she wanted him for, he walked upto her and reached for the two remaining cards. Without reading them, he randomly picked one and looked at it.

--

**Deleted scenes!**

**-Knuckles goes to pick a card.-**

Ready to get started, but still curious to where she always pulled those cards from, Knuckles glanced at her top. Within seconds, his eyes dropped and nestled comfortably in her cleavage.

And Rouge took notice immediately. Irritated, but used to the unwanted attention, she placed a hand on her hip and dipped down to catch his eyes.

"Is there a problem?"

Realizing she was talking to him, Knuckles snapped out of it and laughed nervously. Then he slapped a mitt over his eye. "Uh, my contact! I think I lost my contact in there...just let me get it...!"

The moment he lifted his hand to her, a very loud and sickening crack was heard and even before Sonic or Shadow could react, Knuckles went sailing across the room.

"Hmph!" Rouge grunted, dusting off her hands. "That ought to have gotten through to him...! But somehow...I doubt it."

**-Sonic's turn at the event!-**

Sonic froze while he watched Amy fiercely keep her eyes on him.

Shivering, he began to speak his words. "I...I'd like to take her..."

"Take me..."

"T-take..."

"...me... Say it Sonic! You WILL take ME!!" she yelled, pulling her hammer from out of nowhere and raising it high.

"Not again!" Sonic cried and dashed out of the workshop with Amy wildly swinging her hammer after him.

Rouge shook her head. "That girl has too many raging hormones. How long has she been 12??"

**-Tails' turn at the event!-**

"Whoops! Wrong song!" Rouge said with a hint of mistake in her voice.

"No, wait, keep it there, Miss Rouge, I like this song!"

Rouge raised an eyebrow and said nothing but let the song play.

As soon as he heard J Holiday's song start up, Tails began to jive with the melody and snap his fingers.

"Wanna put my fingers through your hair! Wrap me up in your legs! And love you till your eyes roll back! I'm tryin to put you to bed, bed, bed! I'ma put you to bed, bed, bed Then I'ma rock your body, turn you over. Love is war, I'm your soldier! Touching you like it's our first time!! I'ma put you to bed, bed, bed!! I'ma put you to bed, bed, bed!!!!"

Rouge couldn't help but laugh as everyone else in the room did the same.

"Maybe I should have thought of that..." Shadow muttered.


	9. Getting Hard

_**A/N: lol again, no offense to any guys, or girls, for that matter. This stupid chapter is just for pure fun and quaint nonsense. **_

_**A/N: Special thanx to Lord of Ki LOL**_

--

"Getting Hard"

Without much passion, Shadow's gleaming eyes skimmed over the details of the event on the card.

"Well, what is it?" Amy impatiently called.

Sonic, who was standing a good distance away from her, waved the situation away and responded to her. "Leave him alone , Amy."

Pouting cutely, she glanced over at Sonic. "If you're still upset from the last event, I've already said I was sorry! I won't bother you again..."

Sonic sighed in relief while Knuckles chuckled. "I'd put money on this one! 10 bucks says she won't do it!" he whispered slyly to Sonic.

Amy's ears picked up on it m and her eyes narrowed. "What did you say??"

"Amy, don't break your promise." Tails spoke up meekly, only to get shouted at by the annoyed pink hedgehog.

"I didn't promise anyone anything! I just said I wouldn't bother him!"

Dismayed, Sonic sighed. "That didn't take long."

"Hahaha, told you, Blue. Pay up!" Knuckles joked, waving his mitt in the expectancy of money. "Bills only, please!"

Upon hearing all this, Rouge just shook her head. "...Like children..."

Shadow said nothing, but humphed at the card and handed it back to her.

She blinked dumbfoundedly, staring at his back turned to her. "Shadow?"

"I'll do it." he stated nonchalantly and walked back towards the others.

Blinking once in surprise and again confusion, Rouge wordlessly watched him leave.

Then she looked down at the card he pulled. A large toothy grin slithered across her face and she clapped her hands to get their attention.

"Hey you guys, listen up!!"

In their own attentive ways, they answered her call.

"What is it, bat girl?" Knuckles asked quickly, counting his money.

Shadow tossed the echidna a glare, which Knuckles returned with a thumbs down and a smile.

Silently, Shadow took that as a challenge.

Cheerfully, Rouge continued on. "The event Shadow picked was... Getting Hard!!!"

Sonic and Knuckles recoiled as if they had been hit in the gut.

"Say what?!" Sonic cried.

Knuckles growled and shook a fist. "First we had to last longer than a minute for you and NOW we have to get hard right after?!!" he complained, using the word 'hard' in a non-sensual context.

Of course, the others except Tails, didn't see it that way.

Sonic chuckled boyishly. "We're not machines, Rouge! Give us some time!"

Amy stifled a giggle but ended up bursting out laughing from the echidna's words. "Knuckles, do you even listen to yourself when you talk? Even I got that one!"

Frowning, he turned to her. "Got what? Did I say something funny?"

"Obviously!" she snickered.

Tails shuddered. "I don't know about you Knuckles, but I don't like being hard. It's mean."

All eyes were on Tails.

Amy was the first to protest with a suck of her teeth. "Oh be quiet! What do you know about being hard anyway, Tails?"

And unexpected by all, he smirked faintly. "What do you know, Amy?"

Sharp sounds of surprise and disbelief pierced the air. Amy could feel the intensity of all their gazes fleeting over her and blushed wildly. "Th-that... That's a secret only for me to know! B-Besides I only found out a little about it today...!" she stammered, in reference to watching Rouge swallow an assortment of food in a previous event.

Shadow sighed, detaching himself from such a foolish conversation and turned his back to the group.

Sonic appeared rather nervous and constantly placed his pointer finger to his lips as if to silently shush the girl.

Knuckles saw this and stepped forward in front of Sonic. "No way, Blue!" he grinned. "I want to hear more about this!"

And Tails 'innocently' continued. "Not a chance, Amy! I've seen what you do but everyone else ignores it! You know plenty about being hard from the way you always give me nasty glares and thrust your rigid..."

'Words at me' , he would have said but Sonic dashed over to Tails and covered his mouth.

Rouge whistled.

"Shhh!" the older hedgehog scolded his friend. Tails yelped in shock and managed to wriggle free of Sonic's grasp. "But Sonic, it's true! She always does it to me!"

A blush formed across Sonic's face and he started to sweat. "I-I don't want to hear it, Tails! If Amy's doing something...strange, then that's her business!"

Knuckles laughed. "Damn, Sonic. You two make it sound like Amy's got a..."

"...One-eyed snake...?" Tails muttered, his thoughts elsewhere while his eyes lingered on an actual snake outside one of the windows in a tree. One of its eyes seemed to be closed as it slithered up the limber branches.

Unable to handle his statement, Sonic and Knuckles broke into a roaring round of hearty laughter.

Shadow only shook his head while Rouge tried not to hold back her amusement with stifled chuckles and snickers.

Amy on the other hand, turned bright red and clenched her fists.

"I...! I don't h-have a...!" she squeaked, but was too embarrassed to even speak.

Knuckles and Sonic nearly broke into tears.

"Whooo! That was a good one!" Knuckles wheezed, grabbing his aching sides.

"You're tellin' me!" Sonic chimed in. "It definitely would explain a lot!"

"Haha! Nice one, Sonic!"

Giggling, Rouge glanced up at Amy. "So Amy, what do you know?" she jeered, adding insult to injury.

Angry, Amy balled her hands into fists and spun around to face Rouge. "I learned it from you!!" she sputtered, referring to one of the previous events where she watched Rouge devour several foods down her throat.

Silence settled in, but was quickly interrupted by a chortle by Knuckles. "So that's where Amy got her 'rigidness' from!"

"I guess she learned the idea from the best!" Sonic laughed.

"OH SHUT UP!" Rouge yelled to the snickering adolescents.

"I wouldn't be too surprised, come to think of it..." Sonic added, but suddenly froze when he felt a harsh glare burning through his back.

Glancing over his shoulder, he knew it was Shadow. But he nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned to find the dark hedgehog standing directly in front of him.

Stern rubies gleamed with a deadly intent as they narrowed at Sonic.

"Watch it." he sneered, then disappeared.

A second later, he stood boldly next to Rouge.

Casually, he smoothed his quills back, then crossed his arms. "Now shut up and pay attention! All of you are participating in this event. And if you don't approve, you can leave!"

Rouge blinked at Shadow suddenly taking charge on her behalf. She could have done it herself but she wasn't one to turn up her nose at a favor.

Thankful, she nodded to Shadow and took a step forward to get their attention.

"Thanks, Shadow... But it seems to me the boys wouldn't mind getting reamed."

"Hmph" the dark hedgehog replied. "I could care less."

Amy shot both Knuckles and Sonic threatening looks, but turned away from them; her face continuing its carmine glow.

"Allright, everyone, listen up!" Rouge announced. "For this event, you boys will put not only your stamina, but your control to the test."

Knuckles scoffed. "Meaning?"

Rouge grinned. "Well if your performance in this event will be anything like the previous one, then I have low expectations for you..."

Her blunt statement plucked a nerve and Knuckles clenched a fist. "What's that?! Are you saying you'd think I'd lose?!"

Rouge nodded. "Exactly what I'm saying."

Shadow chuckled to himself.

"Miss Rouge?" Tails spoke up from near the back of the room. "Should I get the equipment you'll need for this event too?"

Smiling, Rouge walked over to him and bent down slightly to meet his height. "You sure can, Fox-boy. Would you please?"

Tails blushed lightly. "U-um...yeah! What do you need?"

Leaning down to meet the little one's height, Rouge cupped a hand over his ear and whispered her list to him.

Knuckles, Sonic and Amy remained silent but wore puzzled expressions as they matched Tails' range of looks from curious, to bewildered, to downright mortified.

Blushing lightly, Tails looked up at Rouge and cutely blinked twice. "Are you sure you really want to mix those two??"

"Mmmmhmmm" the mischievous bat nodded slyly.

"But, then the cream will explode if it's briskly agitated!"

"Cream??" Sonic inquired.

"Explode?" Amy followed suit.

"Agitated?" Knuckles joined in, raising a suspicious brow. "Just what are you planning, bat-girl?"

Shadow said nothing, and remained close to the stage with his arms folded over his chest.

"Trust me, Fox-boy. Can you get those things for me? Hmmmm?"

The little fox blushed lightly, but nodded. "Well, ok." he agreed, trusting Rouge fully, and ran off to gather the items.

With a dark grin, Rouge turned to face the group. Knuckles felt a sudden disturbing chill as the voluptuous bat narrowed her keen eyes directly into his own.

"Uh...um... Can I help you?"

"Hmmhmmmhmmm" she chuckled in her throat. "I'm not the one who will need help...!."

Moments later, Tails returned to the group.

All curious eyes were on him as he briskly pulled over a long table to the middle of the floor, then scampered to litter its surface with random items.

Scattered across the table, were what looked like to be 4 different sized rods of some sort of putty.

Inserted within those cylinder slabs were small tubes that connected to large canisters of--

"Whipped cream?!" Amy exclaimed with bewildered shock. "What do you need whipped cream for?!" she continued, turning to Rouge.

The bat only laughed and walked over to the display.

"Allright, boys, listen up! For this event, what you all are going to do is make this soft squishy putty harden...."

A bemused and odd expression grew across Sonic's face and he sheepishly raised his hand. "Um, 'scuse me, Rouge, but won't that stuff get hard on its own if it's left out long enough?"

"At room temperature at least, yes." she stated. The evil grin never left her face. "But to speed things along, what you all will have to do is ...'agitate' the putty to make it hard."

"And?" Amy spoke up, not understanding where all this extensive nonsense was headed.

"Yeah, that seems way too easy." Knuckles chimed in. Then under his breathe, he added: "Easier than you."

Rouge's large ears twitched and if by reflex, she kicked a chair in his direction but he smoothly dodged it.

"I HEARD THAT! ...As I was saying before I got so rudely interrupted---!! The trick to this event is to make the putty hard without causing the whipped cream within it to explode You will be timed on this."

Hearing that, Sonic couldn't help but slip out a chortle. Then he chuckled. Then laughed.

Amy glared at him for getting some sort of joke she didn't. "What's so funny...?"

"Sheesh Rouge!"Sonic shook his head. "Could you be anymore 'discreet' about what this event is supposed to mimic??" he snickered, sarcastically saying the word 'discreet'.

Rouge just looked at him with slick half-lidded eyes and smiled. "Would you rather go someplace more private and compete in this event? Just tell me the results, or lack there of, within the amount of time I've given you!"

"Uhhh thaaaat's ok...!" Sonic declined nervously, still chuckling a bit.

Getting fired up to be the winner no matter what, Knuckles tightened a readied fist. "Bring it on!! All we have to do is make the cream shoot out right? I'll get that putty hard in no time!!"

Silence. Obviously, he wasn't listening very well to what the instructions were.

"I don't think that's such a good idea Knuckles." Amy commented.

"Yeah," Tails added, "If you made it shoot out, your hands would get all messy. And maybe even your face too!"

Amy tossed him an astonished look while Knuckles only blinked. "So what are you trying to say? The cream is crammed in there to be released right?? Besides it sounds pretty painful to just keep all that---"

Then he stopped abruptly as a thought hit him.

With panicked eyes, he glanced to Sonic.

A full second of silence wavered between them until they both fell to the floor bursting into laugher.

"HAHAHAHAAA!!" they howled hysterically.

Amy glared at them and crossed her arms. "I still don't get what's so funny!"

"Neither do I. And I should know..." Tails uttered sadly.

"What's that?!"

Tails looked up into Amy's glowering eyes innocently. "Well, I'm a guy too, just like them. If they're laughing at something masculine, I should be too!"

Her eyes narrowed even more. "I don't believe you. Shadow isn't laughing."

Curious, the little fox looked up to where Shadow was.

The dark hedgehog had his back turned to them and his head hung low.

Unseen by the two youngsters, Shadow was doing his best to stifle a chuckle.

"Well, Shadow is just cool like that, I guess." Tails concluded with a shrug, then scampered off to Sonic and Knuckles.

Amy wordlessly watched him go.

Frowning, she stomped upto Shadow to talk to him about the insanity of the others, but stopped cold when she noticed his shoulders shaking.

"So, you WERE laughing!!!" she exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him.

Letting another sound of amusement pass, Shadow turned and walked right past her. "Time to get this over with."

Minutes later, the guys managed to control their amusement to an audible level and stood around patiently waiting for Rouge.

Disgusted with the dwindling time, Rouge looked at her watch. Less than 6 hours left!

This fun and spontaneous little game of hers would have to come to a stop soon. She wanted time to marvel in that milkshake!

"Allright, everyone! All of you participating in this event, please come and sit at the table. It doesn't matter where. Sit wherever you feel the most...comfortable." she smirked.

Casually, the contestants approached the table and sat down in front of the arranged assortments of variously-proportioned slabs of putty.

Sonic and Knuckles did their best to contain boyish snickers, but made silent gestures to the other about the contraptions in front of them.

Shadow and Tails eyed the devices before them, then glanced at the others'.

Tails' tower-like putty mold was a few inches much taller and thicker than Shadow's.

To this, Shadow raised a brow. "That can't be right...can it...?" he uttered under his breath, secretly wanting to switch with the young fox.

Oblivious to the hedgehog's thoughts, Tails caught his eyes and blinked. "Hmm? What is it? Is something wrong Shadow?"

Shadow said nothing at first and stared sharply at the younger. "....Nothing..." he stated simply and fell into his usual cool, arm-crossed demeanor.

Tails double blinked. "Huh???"

"If I can have everyone's attention..." Rouge announced with a smile. "As I said before, this event will be timed. You all will have 30 seconds. The premise of this game will determine how much strength you all have along with control. See the mounds of putty in front of you? You will have to grab them and rub them briskly..." she informed, gesturing the motions they would be using with a fist.

Sonic chuckled lowly in his throat while Knuckles struggled to keep a straight face.

Shadow had his eyes adverted elsewhere while Tails intently observed Rouge's motions.

Also watching, Amy sighed and shook her head.

Rouge continued. "...and while there is whipped cream inside, the idea isn't to make it erupt. No no nooo, boys. For this event, you will be penalized for any....ejaculations. So keep it hard, but don't fizz the jizz....."

"So what are our penalties, Miss Rouge? What if we do cream?"

"DO CREAM?!!" Knuckles shouted.

"...cream?!!!!!" Sonic chimed in.

"What's Cream got to do with this?" Amy asked, the obvious boredom clear in her voice.

"Uh, I mean---!" Tails faltered and blushed while trying to correct himself. "Not Cream! The cream inside the putty molds!!"

"....What's this? Reversed roles...?" Shadow muttered in confusion. Tails seeming blunt while Amy appeared oblivious to the obvious?

"I mean! What happens if we DO make the cream splash out, Miss Rouge??" Tails finished, sweetly.

The bat half-frowned. "He just had to throw my name at the end of that didn't he..." she mumbled under her breath. Then she glared at Tails.

It would seem their little innocent fox wasn't as innocent as he had been letting on.

But they'd deal with that later, she figured, and answered his question. "...If, by chance, you boys apply too much friction and pressure to the molds and the cream spurts out, you will lose points off of your score with each shot."

Sonic chuckled at her last choice of words. "Right...This is going to be one painful event...!"

"Mmmhmmm" Rouge hummed devilishly. "All of you will start one at a time with a time limit of 30 seconds." With a sigh, she checked her watch. Less than 5 hours left now.

"Also, this event may be the last one, judging by how much time we have left. We may be able to squeeze one more event in."

"Awwwwww" Sonic and Knuckles joked, feigning disappointment. "That's just too bad, bat-girl!!"

Sonic smirked and shrugged. "Not like it really matters. At the rate things have gone, I'd say we know who her winner is going to be...!" he commented slyly, sending a glance over at Shadow.

"Hmph" was the dark hedgehog's only verbal reply.

"Don't be so sure about that..." Rouge smiled faintly, her eyes on Shadow.

He returned her gentle apologetic gaze with a steady one of his own.

Whatever the outcome of this game of hers was, was just that.

Expanding her attention to the remainder of the group, Rouge raised her head to signal to them all to get ready.

"Remember, you all have 30 seconds. Shadow...it's your turn, first."

Taking heed of her instruction, Shadow lifted a hand to the table top and loosely curled his fingers around the squishy mold.

"On your mark....get set....go!!"

The second the event initiated, Shadow grabbed the putty briskly and tautly. He barely had the chance to give the substance one upwards stroke when a rush of splashing white erupted from the tip of the thick object.

He jumped out of his seat and shook the white foamy fluff from his wrist and fingers.

Sonic and Knuckles nearly fell to the floor they cried with such strong laughter at Shadow's mistake.

"What..." Shadow wondered feverishly. "I didn't even grip it that hard!!!"

More howls of laughter ensued. This time, Sonic actually did fall out of his chair, gripping his sides from laughing so intensely.

"Some Ultimate Life-Form!!" Knuckles roared; tears in his eyes and a huge grin on his face. "Even I can last longer than that!"

"Looks like Shadow's the real minute man!" Sonic jeered, unleashing another wave of cackles.

"Don't you know how to handle yourself, Shadow?! I almost feel bad for what bat-girl has to look forward to!"

At this, Amy let a giggle slip, but quickly composed herself in the heated glares of both Shadow and Rouge.

Looking over at her companion, Rouge threw Shadow a towel and sighed. "Sorry about that Shadow..."

".... Call me when this event is over." Was all he said before disappearing.

If she hadn't been so pressed for time, she would have gone after him wherever he went, but Rouge decided to stay and carry the event along.

"Amy, can you clean that up? Tails, you're up."

"No, I'm not..."

Rouge's ears twitched. "What did you say?"

"Ready!!" the fox perked up cheerfully. Eagerly, he readied his hands around the base of the putty mold, preparing for her signal.

Rouge opened her mouth to say something about that comment he made, but simply shrugged it off.

"Ready, set, go!"

Tails wasted no time in gingerly grasping the slimy material and slid his hand up and down it at a moderate pace to get a feel for how much effort to put into it. Then he quickly began to heighten his speed and smiled triumphantly when he felt the substance start to harden in his hand.

"It's getting hard, Miss Rouge! I feel it!"

The bat sulked a bit and muttered disdainfully to herself. "...He definitely is doing that on purpose! ....20 seconds left!"

Carefully, Tails managed to continue his speedy but discreet pace and immediately took his hand away when time was up.

Examining his handiwork, Tails cheered happily upon noticing the darker color of his putty in comparison to the others. "Yay I did it!" he jumped up and down. "Although that does look painful..." he mumbled under his breath.

Rouge, again caught on to his words, but chose to ignore them. "Very good, Fox-boy. Sonic, if you can peel yourself off the floor long enough to do this, it's your turn."

With a chuckle, Sonic sprang to his feet and slipped into the chair. As he positioned himself, he tossed a mischievous look up at Rouge.

"Watch closely..." he smirked.

Amy took a step towards him, ready to pummel him into the ground for flirting with Rouge, but held herself in place. She absolutely could not interfere and mess with his score again. Pouting, she crossed her arms and watched him with glaring eyes.

"Ready, set go!"

With firm, but soft looking strokes, Sonic glided his hand up the length of the putty mold and rolled his fingers over the very tip if it before bringing his hand downwards.

And just the same as before, he led his hand gingerly upwards, then back down but with a dash of more speed.

Before long, the image of his hand became blurred and the shape of the putty continued to grow and grow.

Rouge was astonished with his technique. At the insane speed he was going, he still handled the putty gently enough for it to lengthen and grow harder.

A muffled clatter echoed throughout the room as the notepad and pen slipped from Rouge's hands and scattered onto the floor.

Seeing that, Sonic slowed his ministrations to longer and deeper strokes. Then suddenly stopped.

"Well, Miss Bat, I believe that was 30 seconds!" he mused, folding his arms casually behind his head.

Rouge, and Amy were speechless. The only difference was Amy wasn't quite sure of why she felt so amazed just watching Sonic rub a slab of putty in one hand. But she loved it.

Rouge, on the other hand, was astonished beyond belief. It wasn't until she felt her smoothness of her notebook brush across her hand that she realized she had been spacing out.

"Oh...oh!!!" she blushed and immediately took the contents from the playful blue hedgehog.

"Sonic that... that was amazing..." she admitted; her wide eyes swimming in his.

Sonic sighed and winked at her. "Yeah, I know. I know."

With a thumbs up, he turned on his heels and went back to his seat.

As he passed Amy, he nervously avoided her fiery dagger-filled glares, but still felt them tearing through his back for ignoring her.

Once he sat down, he breathed a whoosh of relieved air. "I thought I was a goner!"

"Hmph, show off!!" Knuckles declared, pointing at the hero.

Still basking in her embarrassing folly, Rouge shook the nonsense from her mind and cleared her throat.

"Um...um...you...yeah you..." she stammered, nodding towards Knuckles. "You're up."

A toothy grin spread across his face as he glanced at Tails, then settled his eyes on Rouge. "No, I'm not."

"GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!!" she yelled, throwing a pen at him.

"Damn, keep your pants on!!! I'm going, I'm going! ...Or should I say I'm coming?"

Sonic snickered and shook his head as he watched Knuckles dodge another flying projectile from the angry bat.

"GO! NOW! 30 seconds! 29! 28! 27--!!"

"Ah! Okay okay!" Knuckles groaned and hurried to grasp the soft putty. "Eww it's all squishy and--"

"So make it hard!!!"

Knuckles jumped in his seat. Her words sparked a hint of determination in him and he vigorously hardened the material.

A tiny drop of the whipped cream beaded at the tip of the putty. It didn't catch his attention until a slither of it spilled down the putty's side and pooled onto his mitt.

Swearing, he relaxed most of the tension he had on it then grinned wildly when he saw it start to change color.

"Why the hell am I smiling...?" he rhetorically asked himself, continuing to stroke the hardening length. "...This is starting to freak me out, Sonic...."

"H-hey! Don't put my name in it, Knucklehead!! You've only got 10 more seconds anyway!!"

"Keep pumping it, Knuckles!" Tails cheered.

"Yeah...! I'll beat that Shadow if it's the last thing I do!" he commented, in hopes of building his confidence.

"Ew, Knuckles..." Sonic joked. "Keep that to yourself, man!"

"I know you aren't talking, Blue!! You've got a girl practically throwing herself at you and you haven't even tried to get with her once!"

"So what are you saying?!" Sonic inquired with full intent to hear the answer to this one.

Knuckles frowned. "I'm saying you're g--"

" 'Ey! Time's up!" Rouge called and the determined echidna gave the object one more upwards stroke before carefully removing his hand slowly, as if to make sure it wouldn't collapse.

"Whoa..." Knuckles blinked, then remembered the cream on his mitt and without thinking, licked it off.

"Ewwww Knuckles!" Amy grimaced and gripped her stomach. "Why'd you do that?"

He shrugged. "It's just whipped cream."

"But it's got putty on it!"

He shrugged. "So?"

"Like I said, keep it to yourself. Need I say more...?" Sonic chided with a sly glance towards his red comrade.

"Whatever, Sonic. You're still--"

"Allright, listen up you guys!" Rouge announced, purposely interrupting the bickering adolescents.

"These are the scores that you received: Sonic, you got a perfect 5; Knuckles, you have a 4; Fox-boy's also got a perfect 5 and Shadow....well he's got ...a zero..."

The wild echidna's eyes lit up. "A zero?!! That's the best score I've heard someone get all day!"

"Someone that wasn't you, you mean." Amy corrected, earning a chuckle from Sonic.

"Aw, who cares?!! I still got a higher score than him! I told ya I was gonna beat him!!" he exclaimed, throwing a bold fist into the air.

"That'd be the day..." Rouge mumbled, taking his words in 2 different contexts.

"Miss Rouge?"

Liquidy aquamarine drifted down to waver in the small fox's gaze. "Yes, Fox-boy, what is it?"

"Um...since Sonic and I both got perfect scores, who will lead the next event?"

Her eyes softened. "Hmm, that is a good question. Why don't we tally up all the scores so far, hmm?"

Moments passed as Rouge calculated all the contestants scores. Shadow still hadn't returned to the group, yet, but that wasn't a major concern to her.

The final scores were as follows:

Sonic= 32

Knuckles= 36

Tails= 34

Shadow= 37

"What?!" a baffled Knuckles shouted. "That loser got a zero in this event and he STILL has the higher score?! This game is rigged!! I demand a recount!"

"Knuckles, calm down man!" Sonic instructed with a shrug. "Contrary to popular belief, this game isn't rigged. He was the one with the highest score from the last event, remember?"

"Yeah, so what!!"

"Ahem! If I may continue!" Rouge objected to the two, yet again. "Shadow is the winner of all events currently. We have time for one more event. And that one will make or break where all of you stand!"

"Hmph!" Knuckles frowned and stormed to the door of the workshop.

"Yeah, well, if Shadow is choosing this next event, I'm waiting outside!" he declared, swinging the door open.

Just as he took a step, the door flew back in his face.

"Hey, what the--!" he shouted, holding his nose and getting into a fighting position.

On the other sider of the door, was of course, Shadow.

Without even bothering to look the echidna's way, a small smirk tugged at Shadow's lips and he strolled into the room. "I didn't see you so obviously standing there again."

"Why you--! I'll show you something obvious!!!" Knuckles challenged, launching an attack towards Shadow, but the swift hedgehog smoothly evaded the feeble attempt.

"And this is why you cannot defeat me." he added coolly and continued over to the rest of the group.

"I heard I got the highest tallied score. Let me choose the last card so we may be done with this."

Rouge and Amy both looked at him with wide eyes.

With a nod, Rouge reached into her top and pulled out the remaining cards. "This will be the last one!"

--

Yep, one last chapter to go. Jeez, it's been 4 plus years now, this story needs to end! Lol

-Mel


	10. Box Eater

A/N: The final chapter finally!

A/N: Do excuse Tails. He's a little.... curious ^^;

**--**

**THE MILKSHAKE CHALLENGE!!! BOX EATER**

"Finally, the last event" Shadow exhaled and picked one of the remaining cards Rouge presented to him. Without much passion, he read the title quickly. "Box eat-- What?"

"What does it say?"Amy wondered.

Sonic and Knuckles started to chuckle boyishly.

"Yeah, what is it, Shadow?" Sonic jeered.

The dark hedgehog raised a questionable eyebrow and glanced to Rouge with a dubious expression.

" 'Box Eater'...?"

This earned coy snickers from Amy and Rouge, while gaining confused amusement from Sonic and Knuckles.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Knuckles whispered nervously to Sonic.

"Knowing Rouge, it sure is."

Knuckles shook his head and chortled in disbelief. "I'm not going down there...!"

"Shh!" Sonic playfully warned. "Don't worry, you'll live!"

Tails, on the other hand, only smiled. Then he chuckled to himself.

Amy caught wind of this and tossed a loaded glare his way.

"What are you laughing about?" she pressed with a disgusted half-frown.

Appearing cutely innocent, Tails smiled bashfully at the pinkish hedgehog. "I just thought it would be funny to see the guys with pieces of cardboard jammed in their mouths."

"Uh huh..." Amy trailed off, not believing him in the slightest. She sighed. "Whatever! Let's just get this event done already!"

"The girl's got a point." Rouge agreed. "Are you alright with this event, Shadow?" she asked intently, already knowing of his answer.

Shadow turned casually towards her with crossed arms and an unreadable expression. "Less than 5 hours, Rouge." he reminded.

Rouge smiled lightly at him, then returned her attention to the others.

"Alright, boys. As you can tell from the title of the event, you'll be box eating."

Sonic and Knuckles stifled skeptical amusement.

"So just whose box will we be eating, Rouge?" Knuckles inquired, grinning at the voluptuous bat.

Sonic chuckled and gave Rouge a flirtatious look, but it quickly dissipated into a nervous smirk when Amy's sharp eyes glared his way.

"Not mine. Sorry." Rouge playfully declared, then glanced to Tails who was looking at Amy with an odd expression of longing.

"Oh Fox-boy..." she chirped, beckoning to the youth with a finger. "Come up here for a second."

He instantly perked up at her request and headed over to her bashfully. "Yes, Miss Rouge?"

"I need you to do something for me."

"Another favor?"

"Mmmhmmm" Bending down, she cupped a hand over his ear.

The others watched them with minimal interest until Tails' expression slyly darkened. He licked his lips blissfully. "Really?" he asked with potent innocence.

Rouge nodded.

Happily, Tails scampered off into the storeroom of his workshop.

Amy's eyes watched the deceptive little fox while cheerfully slipped from sight. "What did you tell him to get this time?"she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

The mischievous bat smiled. "You'll see." Then her gaze fell on Knuckles and her amusement broadened. "I look forward to watching this event."

Knuckles said nothing, but stared blankly in Rouge's direction.

Puzzled, Sonic glanced from Rouge to Knuckles, to Rouge and back to Knuckles again.

"Psst, Knuckles. Hey Knuckles!"

"What?"

"I think Rouge just threw a pass at you!"

Knuckles double blinked in awe and faced his blue comrade. "Huh, really?"

"Yes really! You didn't notice?! You were looking right at her, weren't you??"

Feeling accused, Knuckles raised a fist at Sonic. "Of course I was looking! What point are you trying to make? I didn't see anything special!"

Sonic gave his friend a surprised look that soon settled into a smug hooded glare. "You weren't looking at her face, were you?"

"H-hey! Stop accusing me! You're making me look bad, Sonic!"

"Sorry man. But you're doing most of that yourself!"

"Why you--! What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You're joking right?!"

"Ugh." Amy groaned, crossing her arms. "Do they EVER stop?! What's so great about Rouge anyway?"

"What's that?" Rouge challenged, stepping closer to the petite female.

"I said what's so great about you?! I'm way cuter than an old bag like you. Yet, you've got all these guys wrapped around your little finger!"

Rouge flinched. "Old bag?!!"

"That's right! I mean, you may be a D cup," Amy emphasized with a rounded gesture via her hands, "but at least I don't sag. You cow!"

"Cow?!!!" Rouge fumed. She was ready to hit the girl when a gleeful sound from Tails snagged her attention.

"Moo! Moo!" the small fox's voice resonated happily as he wheeled in a cart with several cardboard boxes. "The milkman is here, Miss Rouge!"

Rouge stiffened, feeling her cheeks grow hot from Tails' statement. Even though she figured he had just heard the end of the conversation and decided to throw his random two cents in. She started to relax, but the outrageous laughter from Sonic and Knuckles quickly reversed that. At a loss for support, she turned to Shadow. But anger flashed through her when she realized he was chuckling to himself as well.

"Shadow!!"

"Heh heh. Sorry Rouge. It was funny." he snickered, lowering his head, " 'Moo moo'... hahaha"

But Rouge certainly didn't see it that way. She groaned in disgust and forced herself to go on with the event. "Fox-boy, I want you to place the boxes on the floor."

"Okay." he obliged, picking up the wide boxes and putting them a few inches apart.

"So, what's in the boxes?" Sonic asked, holding back an obvious snicker.

To this, Rouge grinned. "Show them, would you?"

With a nod, Tails enthusiastically pulled back the open flaps of one of the boxes and pulled out a rather large apple pie.

"Pie?" Sonic questioned, quirking a bewildered eyebrow.

"Where does he get all this stuff from?" Amy muttered under her breath.

"What do the pies have to do with anything?" Knuckles spoke up with a shrug. "We gonna throw them at each other?"

"Not quite." Rouge smirked.

"Uh oh, she's got that evil look in her eyes!" Sonic joked, giving Rouge a wink.

Amy frowned a bit watching her beloved Sonic openly flirt with Rouge. She glanced to Shadow.

He shot the blue hedgehog a piercing look then shifted his eyes elsewhere in the workshop.

The dejected girl sighed to herself. Just what did Rouge have that she didn't?

Aimlessly, her viridian gaze fleeted over in Tail's direction.

Her eyes started to widen while she witnessed him slide two fingers into the pastry and move them in a slow circular motion before pulling them out.

Greatly appeased, he brought the thick substance to his lips and licked them lightly before easing them into his mouth.

Surprised, Amy gasped and pointed a finger at him.

"Y-you--! You---!" she stammered almost breathlessly.

Oh so innocently, Tails trailed his eyes over to the frantic female. Then an impish smirk marked his face and he shoved his fingers into the pie. But this time, he made sure she saw everything slowly enough as he savored the addictive taste.

"PERVERT! You're not innocent!!" Amy suddenly blurted out.

Needless to say, everyone's attention darted to her, then moved to Tails.

Cutely, Tails only shrugged. "I'm sorry. I just really _really _like pie." he meekly confessed to everyone, and tossed an odd glance to Amy that she read perfectly.

"I...I think I'm gonna be sick." she announced and moved away from the group.

"Alright!" Sonic cheered just a bit too loudly.

Tails appeared a bit saddened to see her leave, but his expression brightened when Rouge began walking towards him. "Oh, sorry about the pie, Miss Rouge. I guess this one will just be mine then."

If Rouge hadn't been so pressed for time, she would have made him get another one. She was _too_ pressed for time.

"The rest of you, come over here and choose a box."

"On the floor?!" Knuckles countered. Then he chuckled. "Now, what are you upto?"

Rouge smirked evilly and reached behind Tails to pull an unfolded bandanna off the cart. "On your knees." she remarked, a little too eagerly.

Not knowing what to do, Sonic and Knuckles exchanged awed glanced while Shadow warily stared at Rouge.

"What's the matter, boys? Afraid of a little pie? On your knees, I said!" she demanded, enjoying the brief power trip and snapped the bandanna as if it were a whip.

Still startled, the males continued to stare at her. But Sonic was the first to zip to a kneel in front of one of the boxes. "Yes ma'am!" he saluted.

Knuckles glanced at his friend with a cautious expression. "O...kaaay.... " Then he looked to Rouge. "There had better not be any razors in there..."

"Shut up and kneel." Shadow commanded, still standing tall.

"Why don't you?" Knuckles snapped, kneeling at a box.

"Because I refuse." he replied, crossing his arms.

Enticed, Rouge licked her lips. "Retaliation. I wouldn't have expected any less from you, Shadow."

"Hmph"

"But, do you always prefer to stand? I'm sure it would be pretty difficult for you to always perform like that."

"Perhaps."

She bit her lip coyly. "Do you always stay on your feet when you eat, Shadow?"

She smirked. "I wouldn't know. The opportunity never laid itself before me, Rouge." he insinuated. His amusement grew when he saw her face turn red.

But she wasn't turning red from embarrassment!

Sonic shook his head. "Even I don't use awful lines like that to a girl!"

"Says the guy who's too fast to keep a girl."

"Hey, I may be fast, but I don't bounce from girl to girl!"

"I think Shadow just wants Miss Rouge on her back" Tails gathered.

A few glances fluttered his way, but he was ultimately ignored.

Rouge sighed, regaining her stature. "Shadow, if you please?"

Slightly humiliated from his horrible pick up line, Shadow slowly did as Rouge had wanted while feeling like quite the fool. 'It's almost over' he assured himself.

"Right." Rouge nodded and motioned to Tails. "You choose a box too, Fox-boy. Amy!" she called towards the doorway.

Hesitantly, the door opened and Amy peeked in. "What?""

"Come here. You can help me in this event."

"I don't want to..." she started to say, but a sudden idea struck her and she smiled. "Sure, Rouge..."

Once she approached the group, Rouge tossed her a bundle of bandannas. "Tie these around their wrists and eyes." she instructed.

"Wh-what?!" Knuckles exclaimed while his wrists were being bound. "What's going on here??"

Rouge groaned. "I'd gag you too, but that would be counterproductive. All of you will be eating pies out of the boxes."

"Then what's the blindfold and stuff for?!" Knuckles challenged.

Rouge's eyes flickered with malice as she smiled. "For kink."

Her eyes trailed over to Sonic, who gave her a soft smile before Amy tied his wrists together—harshly.

Before he could protest, she yanked back one of the quills on his head and snaked the cloth around his eyes.

"I'm going to get you back for this, Sonic." she warned in a threatening whisper.

The doomed hedgehog only shuddered from the horrifying thoughts of what Amy would do to him as she calmly aided Shadow, then disgustedly tended to Tails.

"Good." Rouge declared and looked at her watch. Less than 4 hours left. She had to hurry this along. "Alright boys, also for this event, you will have to go through the pies as fast as you can without getting sick."

Sonic and Knuckles snickered at the metaphor.

But Rouge continued on. "You may bite at the top crust, but after that, you can only use your tongue and your whole mouth to slurp as much of the pie as you can. When you're done with one, pick up the trays with your teeth and toss them to the side. Amy or I will pick them up and I'll take score based on how many you've gone through. Got it?"

"I'm ready! Let's do this!" Knuckles enthused.

Amy shook her head. "Oh be quiet! You'll probably just lose again!"

"What'd you say?!"

"Knuckles, Amy, knock it off!" Tail's piped up, pouting. "I'd really like to start this event."

A wave of nausea swept through Amy and she curled her lips in repulsion. ".... .... ew..."

"Ready? On your mark, get set...GO! You have 5 minutes!" Rouge announced, grinning eagerly to herself at the way they tore into the pastries.

Sonic and Knuckles ate away quickly at the flaky golden crusts while Shadow and Tails dove right in with their mouths ready for consumption.

Amy grasped at the hem of her dress and fought back a blush from all the loud and constant sounds of slurping and gulping.

Decorously, Amy looked over to Rouge who appeared blissfully wishful about something.

"Cream??!!" Tails sputtered in amazement at his next pie not having a top crust. A thought came to mind, of a certain someone whose name he instantly thought of, and he happily lapped at the treat.

Rouge's smile faded. "So Fox-boy got the cream pie...."

"What? He did? Give me a cream pie too!" Knuckles shouted.

Sonic burst out laughing, spitting out bits of pie while Shadow did his best to ignore the horrible backwards comment and continue his task. He couldn't stop the frequent chuckles that bubbled into his throat, however.

Rouge would have laughed, but she crossed her arms instead. Memories from the last event and the talk of having "one-eyed snakes" resurfaced in her mind. "I'm not giving you anything, Knuckles! Although I thought you would be the one to get that pie to tell you the truth..." she trailed off, remembering the Food Fetish event and the way he devoured the grape and peach.

"That's alright I don't care what kind of pie it is, I'll eat them all!!" Knuckles boldly affirmed in-between powerful licks.

Sonic laughed again and threw his empty pie pan in Knuckles' direction. " Cut it out, man! Haha You're going to give me a stomach ache."

"What, I'm serious!"

"Haha If I blow chunks, I'm aiming for you first!" Sonic claimed.

"Any pie, huh? Even Amy's?" Rouge mused, glancing at the pink hedgehog who, actually, had a small cherry pie in her hands. But the guys didn't know that.

"Amy??" Tails squeaked, easily interested.

Grossed out, Amy shoved the pie in Rouge's hands. "You eat it."

"I don't want your pie. No thank you!" the bat replied, giving the half-eaten pie a once over. " Ugh, what did you do to it? Plow through it with a razor?! It's all sloppy and runny!"

"It was like that when I first touched it!" Amy shot back.

Rouge sighed. "First time for everything, I suppose. Even to mess over your own pie. I'll bet not even that echidna would eat this one."

"What are you guys doing?" Knuckles wondered; his mind teeming with vivid imagery by their words.

Sonic chuckled as he threw his next pie pan to the side. "Please girls. I really want all this food to stay down!"

"Oh, do you Sonic?" Amy quipped, preparing to deliver an unnecessary comment to him when her eyes trailed over to Shadow. And there her mouth hung in a gape.

Shadow was still on his first pie.

"I don't believe it!!!" Amy shouted, covering her mouth.

"You don't believe what—oh..." Rouge bit her lip, then changed the subject a bit. "Amy go collect their pans, would you?"

"Sure." she agreed then did so.

"Time is almost up, boys." Rouge called, watching Amy stack up the aluminum pans.

When time finally was up, and the guys were freed from their bindings, Sonic and Knuckles lounged casually on the floor awaiting their scores. An uneven constant of chuckles floated between them.

Tails kept his eyes on Amy and Shadow adverted his gaze in disappointment.

And so did Rouge. For now.

She forced herself to be solely occupied with tallying the scores.

After counting the piles, she whipped out her notepad and jotted down the scores.

"Hey, look at that! Only one pan is up there by itself!" Knuckles pointed out and immediately looked Tails and Shadow's way.

The youthful fox appeared rather confident. Shadow on the other hand...

"It was YOU?!" Knuckles burst out laughing. "HAHA! Oh this is priceless! Not so ultimate after all, are you, Shadow?"

Shadow said nothing but ignored the boastful echidna.

"Stop that, Knuckles! You barely got 3 plates up there!" Amy scolded.

Knuckles chuckled. "Fine. As long as I'm not like Shadow over there. What a loser! Hey Rouge, when Shadow can't do anything for you, give me a call! Obviously, I have more of an idea of what I'm doing than he does!"

"And that's saying a lot..." Tails murmured.

"What?"

"Shh, Knuckles, you're taking things too far!" Sonic cautioned.

"The scores are as follows--!" Rouge interrupted. "Knuckles, you have a ONE" she emphasized, not looking up from her notes, "Sonic, you have a 5. Very good. Tails, you have a 4. And Shadow..." she faltered, then cleared her throat. " you also have a 1."

"Hey hold on!" Knuckles interjected. "How does he get a 1?! I beat him by 2 plates!"

"More like 1 and a half" Amy corrected flatly.

"Shut up! I still beat him! Again!"

"And again, keep it to yourself, Knucklehead." Sonic reminded.

"I'll have something for you later, Sonic, if you keep that up!" Knuckles warned.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Well, Rouge, what're the final scores for them? So we can--"

"Hurry up and get out of here."

"Hurry up and get this event over with"

"So Sonic can go on a date with you..." Sonic, Knuckles and Tails commented in unison. "WE KNOW"

Amy pouted. "W-well, who asked you all anyway!"

"So, who is the winner?" Shadow's low voice coolly asked.

All eyes were on him.

"Well, let me see" Rouge started, tallying up all the scores accumulated so far.

"Well now! Isn't this a surprise!"

"What? What is it?" Tails curiously wondered.

"We have, a tie!"

"A tie?" Sonic and Knuckles repeated. "A tie between who? Not me and that...loser!" Knuckles groused, brushing Shadow off.

"Hmph."

"...A tie between all of you." Rouge continued.

Sonic's ears twitched and he sat up straight. "Care to explain yourself?" he offered, giving her a delicate smile.

She returned it courteously with a small one of her own, then glanced to Shadow.

Silently, he nodded to her.

A faint smile touched her lips and she resumed. "Sonic...Knuckles, you two have a 37 while Shadow and Fox-boy have 38s."

"What?!! How is that possible?!" Knuckles demanded.

Rouge only shrugged. "It doesn't matter now. We have our winners and there's no time for a tie-breaker!" she exclaimed and began to walk briskly past them all.

"Hey, where are you goin'?" Knuckles pressed, only to be met with the brimming delight on Rouge's smiling face. "To get my milkshake!"

Sonic immediately sat up, eager to follow after the ecstatic bat, but stopped dead in his tracks when Amy crossed his path. A large daring grin was on her face. "Oh Sonic, guess what..."

"What Amy?" Then his eyes widened in realization and the true sting of him losing the entire event came crashing down on him.

"Oh no! No! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he shouted, dropping to his knees while Amy launched herself at him.

Knuckles peered down at them. "I'd tell you to get a room, but, I think it'd be better if I just left...! Enjoy, Blue!"

"Get back here, you---!" Sonic trailed off, becoming smothered by Amy's face-dappling kisses.

--

The 6 of them miraculously managed to arrive to the parlor just in time.

Tails, Knuckles and Amy, toting a begrudging and mortified Sonic in her clutches, slid into a booth while Shadow and Rouge went upto the counter to get her milkshake.

It was everything she had envisioned and more.

Its container was at least seven inches tall, stuffed with an abundance of ice cream flavors she loved, whipped cream and dashes of strawberries littered throughout.

"It's gorgeous." she gushed breathlessly, reaching out discreetly to touch her fingertips to it as if any warmth would send it shattering to pieces.

"Thank you, Shadow!" Rouge beamed, happily carrying the over-extravagant dessert over to their booth.

"Wow, are you really going to eat all that, Rouge?" Amy quired with disbelief written across her features.

"Hmm maybe not! But I don't care! I finally got my milkshake! And it was all thanks to you guys!"

"That's right." Shadow smirked. He watched the happy bat as she reached for two large straws and struck them deeply into the rich flavored cream.

A rush of anticipation ran through her for the moment when she finally got what she deserved.

Closing her eyes, she curved her lips into a small 'o' and leaned forward to claim the thick straw.

The sound of something scraping across the tabletop caught her ears, but she ignored it, and nearly fell face first onto the table.

Hearing a round of chuckles and laughter about her, Rouge's eyes snapped open and darted instantly to Shadow.

The dark hedgehog sat across from her with a sly smirk on his face and his hand around the base of the dessert.

"Not so fast, Rouge." he mused, making sure the milkshake was set between him and Tails. "Tails and I were the winners, so that means we get to have this milkshake! Right, Tails?"

The fox nodded eagerly, already grasping one of the straws in his hand. "Affirmative!"

"Wh---whu-- Hey! I'm the one who issued the challenges for you all to follow! That milkshake is mine!" Rouge claimed lowly, on the edge of a growl.

Knuckles laughed and so did Sonic once Amy finally let him breathe.

"Well, that's what you get!" Amy joked, waving a finger at the disgruntled bat.

Rouge humphed. "I suppose there are worse things. Like going on a date with Amy." she concluded, glaring darkly at Sonic and Knuckles.

Sonic cringed at first, but Knuckles slouched back in his seat. "So far, it's really not that bad. Amy hasn't laid a finger on me at all."

"Sorry Knux, I ran out of medals for arrogant echidna bastards..." Sonic griped sarcastically.

Then the three of them exchanged well-deserved and well-received laughter.

"Let's get something to drink." Amy suggested cheerfully and got up from the booth with Knuckles and Sonic following suit.

"My treat." Knuckles offered, much to Sonic's relief. "Good. I owe you one."

Pssh, you have money, Blue!"

Sonic playfully shrugged. "No I don't. Remember that bet in the event before the last one?? You took my last 10!"

"Aheh...yeah... how about that..."

Sonic laughed it off. "Whatever. Hey Tails!" he called over his shoulder.

"Yeah Sonic?" the young fox questioned, already sliding out of the booth and meeting up with his hero.

Alone at the table, Shadow and Rouge watched the others and smiled to themselves.

"Finally." she sighed.

"I agree." Shadow spoke softly, brushing his hand against hers.

"Did you really want that milkshake, Shadow?" she asked, scrunching her face in dubious wonder.

"No."

Her glittering turquoise jewels became enhanced by a soft blush that crept across her cheeks. "Shadow..." was all she could say. Bashful, her eyes trailed over to the younger group and to her surprise, Sonic was watching her.

But instead of flirting, all he did was give her a thumbs up and a winning smile.

Without realizing, Rouge returned his gesture with a bright contented smile of her own.

"Look at me..."

Shadow's smooth voice brought Rouge out of her diversion and her eyes instinctively softened from his face being so close to hers.

She felt his fingers glide across her face and slink under her chin as he leaned in and brought her lips quietly to his.

"Aww look!" Amy whispered, nudging Sonic and pointing at the couple. Knuckles snuck a glance but didn't bother to keep a lingering look. Silently, he gave up pursuing Rouge and smiled. "It's about time."

Tails looked over at the two, seeming a little disappointed. But his gaze shifted over to Amy and gave her a bewitching smirk that she thankfully did not see.

"Let's get out of here." Shadow murmured, his forehead against hers.

"What about the milkshake?"

"Leave it."

"You had better make it worth my while then." Rouge grinned, rising to her feet and Shadow did the same.

"Naturally..." he replied and walked ahead of her. The two of them left the parlor with hardly a sound.

And by this time, Knuckles and Sonic had gotten their drinks and returned to the table. Amy had decided she'd take the milkshake and share it with Sonic, but wanted an extra order of strawberries to go on top of it.

Tails was also still at the counter.

"What are you waiting for?" Amy risked asking a simple question to the fox.

"To order." Tails responded, glancing at her. Then for some reason, a mischievous smile slithered across his lips and refused to ebb.

"Hmmm" Amy still didn't fully trust his statements, but went along with them anyway. After she got what she wanted, she turned on her heels and grabbed a few napkins that were on the other side of Tails.

The young woman at the counter greeted Tails sweetly. "Well hello there little man! And what would you like today?"

The smile only broadened while he slipped a glance to Amy, then looked back at the cashier. "I'd like a cherry pop and on the double, please!"

Amy nearly dropped the container of fruit as she stared at the boy with wide eyes.

The woman behind the counter tried to smile. "I'm sorry. We don't give those out here. But if you mean cherry SODA, sure."

"PERVERT!!" Amy squealed, throwing a few napkins at him. "Sonic, come and get your 'INNOCENT' little buddy!"

"Ahhhaaa!!" Knuckles teased and pointed at Sonic as he pushed himself up from the table.

"The party never ends, does it?"

--

YES IT DOES. THE END! FINISHED! FINALITY! DONE!

Oh, DELETED SCENE

-Food Fetish-

Rouge lowered her eyelids. "Ah…I get it. Oh well. You know the deal. Here I go…" she stated, as she lifted the banana's tip to her lips. Licking at part of the chocolate, she tried to figure out how she was going to do this one. The chocolate could coat her throat and make her gag if she did it wrong. Carefully, she parted her lips and eased the banana in. She tried to lock her tongue around it to keep it in place as she nipped off a few bites, but seemed to have a little trouble.

Sonic and Shadow said nothing as they watched her attempts at biting and swallowing the banana inch by inch, as if it resembled something else, and raised a few eyebrows.

Curious, Tails tilted his head to the side as he watched her. "What's slowing Miss Rouge down? She can swallow much faster than that… Why doesn't she shove the whole thing in her mouth?"

Rouge coughed a little, trying to block out his inquiry.

Knuckles, his eyes still closed, gave a puzzled expression at Tails' comment. "What the…I want to see it!"

Sonic looked to Tails and smiled nervously. " As much as I'd like to see that, I don't want Rouge to choke. "

'Your words alone are going to make me do that!' she thought feverishly, trying to block them out.

"Oh ok." Tails nodded, attempting to understand. "Do your best swallowing, Miss Rouge!"

'What?!' she thought, then suddenly doubled over, dropping the banana to the floor of the stage.

Hacking, she held her stomach; caught between catching her breath and holding back a laugh.

"Rouge, are you ok?" Sonic asked, rising out of his seat but Shadow appeared to her side instantly.

"I'm...I'm fine!" she chuckled. "We'd better do that again...!"

"Bwahahaha!" Knuckles laughed, then crossed his arms. "Mind doing that again? I missed most of it!"

"How would you like it if I shoved something thick and coated down your throat?!!" Rouge countered.

"I think, that would be another type of fetish that doesn't quite fit in this event." Sonic figured, scratching his spiky head.

"Then I'll do it!" Amy spoke up, already searching for a long type of food.

Sonic and Knuckles both darted their attention towards the small female in terror.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Spare us. Please." Shadow added.

Tails said nothing, but smiled softly. He would just have to continue being patient. Amy would see things his way someday. Someday.... he wished.

-Mel


End file.
